


Graffiti

by Brainboxy (Pixichan)



Category: B.A.P
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ordinary People, Aromantic Character, Gangs (sort of), Greyromantic Character, M/M, Romance, Slow Build, daehyun is an art boy and hes tryng his best, oh and this story takes place in 2012 because reasons, side!jonglo, youngjae is just really done with people atm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2017-10-20
Packaged: 2018-08-10 03:44:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7829179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixichan/pseuds/Brainboxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A tough and overly cocky Daehyun meets the quiet new boy in his neighborhood by chance. Both swear it isn't love, but it played out so obviously to everyone around them, as clear as the graffiti on the walls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Graffiti covered the brick walls of the neighborhood he was now meant to call home. The sidewalks were cracked and uneven. Gravel filled where the concrete broke, crunching under his shoes as he passed by. Despite the noise of cars driving by, the world felt eerily silent. His steps out of his new building were slow and labored, and before he continued on, he paused to memorize its appearance so he'd be able to find his home once again. ‘I will set your caged heart free, provided only you do the same for me’ had been scrawled messily with spray paint over one of the windows. It was an easy enough property to remember.

Youngjae’s pace was sluggish, troubled by the oppressive heat bearing down on the city as he passed through. Buildings passed but they all looked the same: brick faced with concrete walkways, maybe a small patch of grass out front. The windows were barred like jail cells, each door had at least three locks, and occasionally, there were other gates in front of them. Alleyways lead back on both sides of each building— the vast neural network of the city— filled with wrought-iron fire escapes, more cracked pavement, and riddled with even more potholes than the road. He veered away from them, hugging the edge of the sidewalk by the road in fear of what might be lurking inside those shady spaces even in the light of day. He could see the murals and graffiti as he passed, yet he could not quite read all the pictures and words.

He could make out a couple as he passed, building by building, block by block. Most were tags predictably. They were like lightning bolts, declarations of existence that may only be understood by those who wrote them. Others were a little more deep. That same black spray paint he found on his building appeared a couple more times, scrawling out what seemed to be equally random phrases. ‘Do you ever have one of those days where you don't quite feel like you’ read one on the building next to his. A street down he found, "Sometimes I feel less lonely alone then I do in groups of people" and later "Don't leave, not yet. Being around you makes me feel more like me". Another street down he found electric blue and a different handwriting, one more curly, that read, "The more you try to erase me, the more I desire to be".

The side of one building, open to the street, was entirely marked, excluding its sign that read "Stigma— Tattoos and Piercings". There was a large window, but next to it sat a caricature of a tanned boy with big lips and a dot under his eye, near smirking even if he was only a cartoon. On his head was a crown and underneath it read "The King is back" along with a tag of the artist. Youngjae thought he could make it out as 'ZELO'. Compared to the walls upon walls of tags, this was art. Above it were the bubbled letters "OBEY", white but outlined in black. Around it were only tags, rumors being spread and people's names being written out, including one that pointed at the caricature, spelling out, "Only a prince until he finds his queen." The entire building was marked, even the door. He walked the couple steps farther to the corner, intending to peer down the side street and see what else lay on the building, but something caught his eye.

Across the street was more artwork with the same tag labeling it, bright blue and curly underneath the massive mural of colorful cartoon animals, each with own oddity— a purple teddy bear with fangs, a red parrot with no eyes, a bunny with one arm missing. There seemed to be a hundred of them, each unique and beautiful, but in a tragic way.

A young girl and her mother passed by, and the girl shouted excitedly and pointed at the wall. "Momma, look! He added Kiko!" She pointed at a green cartoon dog that was missing a leg, but her mother tugged her on with no care for her daughter's words.

The animals were gathered in a ring, all facing the center such that the ones on the bottom were upside down and those on the top were right side up. Youngjae paused, leaning against the wall for a minute or so in the shade and shielding his eyes as he stared. At the center of the odd cartoon animals was a painting of a sunflower blooming outward, the edges of its petals dispersing into yellow lines that wove their way through row after row of the cartoon animals until reaching the outside, where they stretched out into a spider web of yellow to encompass the rest of the side of the building.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"  A drawling voice drew his attention to a boy on the ground next to him, on the stoop of tattoo parlor as he drank out of a bottle of pop. He looked a bit young, but his narrow eyes held some odd maturity that sent a little fear into Youngjae's heart. His hair was brown, a snapback covering it, and his skin was tanned as if he spent most of his time in the sun. He was muscled, but in a way that looked natural rather than like he worked out. Youngjae tried to swallow the dryness in his throat.

"Yeah." He took a moment to take in every detail of the stranger— his narrow nose with the mole on one side, his thin lips, and his utter fixation on the sunflower mural. There was a silent pause, and his eyes drifted back to the mural as well.

"The owner of the tattoo parlor keeps telling me it isn't done yet. He's friends with Zelo, and apparently he keeps saying he still has more he wants to add," The stranger said calmly, though his eyes never left the mural in front of them.

"Like what?" Youngjae could not think of a thing to be added to the already beautiful mural.

"Dunno," The stranger answered, "every week or so he adds a new animal. He finds about kids with dead pets or broken stuffed animals and adds them normally." For the first time, the stranger looked up at Youngjae, but only briefly. "The shop owner has a little basket for parents to submit photos if they want." He took a drink of his soda before he went back to staring at the sunflower blooming. His lip tugged between his teeth before he spoke again. "Maybe he'll fill the whole wall, then paint it black. He’s done it before. ‘Painted this pretty little flower about three blocks down, towards the shore. Every day, it got a little bigger and once the bud reached the center of the wall, it started bloomin’." There was a smile on the stranger's face, and Youngjae wondered what made him so entranced with the graffiti. "The flower stayed in full bloom for like three days, and then he painted the whole wall black except for a little writing. He wrote something like 'All beautiful things must die.' I always thought that was pretty. ‘Bit morose, but pretty."

"Sounds like pretentious bullshit," Youngjae retorted.

"Yeah, maybe," The stranger seemed to say it only in passing, as if to push Youngjae's offensive comment away from him. "Zelo's a good guy though. Or, I think he is. I haven't met him yet. Not that lucky, I guess. It doesn't help that I keep getting chased off." He gave another quick look to Youngjae, who felt a shiver run up his spine despite the heat.

"Chased off?" He prompted.

"The kid that owns these streets doesn't like me much. He thinks I'm part of this gang they call the wolf pack; they live down by the strip at the end of the neighborhood. I mean, I'm not, but he thinks so. ‘Can’t really go around changin’ how people think. ‘Guess it's 'cause I used to be friends with a couple of them way back when but, well, we don't really see eye to eye anymore." The stranger shrugged. 

"Couldn’t you just tell him?"

"I'm going to guess you're new." Youngjae nodded, his nose scrunched up and lips thinned in confusion. "You’ll see how Daehyun is soon enough. It’s not worth tryin’. ‘Might as well just enjoy the graffiti when I can, right? It feels like no one ever stop to look.”

"What about you then?" Youngjae asked.

"I'm the only one. I’m kind of known as Zelo’s fanboy at this point." He laughed a little to himself, almost as if he was embarrassed. "I wanna meet him, just once. I wanna know what all of it means, you know?”

The side door to the tattoo parlor opened behind them, and a beautiful man with cat-like eyes and a sharp jaw stuck his head out. "Jongup, really? You’re still here? I already told you to scram. Yongguk will probably be getting back any minute and he says Daehyun's with him." He said, eyes fixed on the stranger.

"I wanna stick around just a bit longer." Jongup's voice was wistful, but he stood up anyway.

"You got your ass kicked the last time you did and you know the pack isn't going to save you. Get out of here, okay? Zelo's probably not doing anything more today anyway, so just go." The man from the tattoo shop insisted.

"Fine, fine." Jongup said with a wave of his hand. He waved to Youngjae too before he started off down the side street.

"You're new?" The man from the tattoo shop's attention turned to Youngjae.

"Yeah," Youngjae replied.

"Stay away from that wolf pup, yeah? He seems harmless but the pack’s nothin’ but trouble. Besides, ‘better not to risk it with Daehyun.” A car went by to fill the space where Youngjae refused to speak. “My name's Himchan." 

"Youngjae."

"You got a family name, Youngjae?" Himchan pried. He pulled out from the door all the way, letting it close behind him.

"Yoo."

"You ain't much of a talker, are you?" Himchan commented with a wry smile. He watched as Youngjae's eyes trailed back to where Jongup had left. "That wolf pup's always here when Daehyun’s gone. ‘Can't blame him, really, it's probably Zelo's best piece yet." There was a pause while Himchan nodded his head toward the sunflower mural, drawing Youngjae's attention back to it. "He swears up and down it's not finished yet. Who knows if it ever will be. You met him yet?" 

"No."

"You'll know it's him when you see him." Himchan gave a cat-like smile. "He's a giant and he dyed his hair blue to piss off his old man. You see anything pretty 'round here, it's his."

"Don't the cops erase it?" Youngjae asked.

"They use to. If you walk down that way you'll see something he wrote tellin’ them to fuck off, and they haven't tried since. ‘Guess they figure it gives 'em a bad standing in the community and a bad standing with Daehyun to be fucking with Zelo's shit." Himchan replied. "Besides, it's damn pretty, even if the kid seems to be catching on Yongguk's philosophy bullshit." He saw Youngjae's confusion and so he spoke again. "Yongguk's the tattoo artist here. My boss, I guess. Or not.  Never really made that bit clear." He had a content smile as he motioned back to the tattoo parlor.

"What do you do?"

"Manage some, and I do the piercings. ‘Usually keep Daehyun from doing stupid shit. What about you, kid?" Himchan answered.

"I'm starting university soon," Youngjae replied.

"What are you going to study?" Himchan prodded.

"I don't know."

"You going to a university or Busan College? Didn't think anyone 'round here could afford a big school." 

"Uni. I’ve got a scholarship."

"Aren't you a smart one? You got family then? Ones that moved with you?" Himchan asked.

"Yeah. Parents and a brother."

"How old is the brother?"

"Twenty."

"He’s studying too?" Himchan pried. Youngjae nodded. "Where? What's he studying?"

"The college. Medicine." Youngjae tried to inch away slowly.

Himchan noticed. "Okay, I'll stop quizzing you." He gave a friendly smile, although it did not calm Youngjae's nerves. "Just got to know everything, you know? Chances are Daehyun will run into you eventually and then he'll want to know the basics. He'll get bored after your name, but it's good for me to know, just in case." He paused for a moment, waiting for a comment from Youngjae that never came. "Were you headed somewhere?"

"The convenience store." 

"Straight three blocks and left for half of one." Himchan told him, nodding off in the direction Youngjae had been walking.

"Thanks," Youngjae was relieved the interaction was done.

"See you around," Himchan commented, and Youngjae could hear the door to the tattoo parlor open and shut once more.

He continued down the streets again, enjoying the tags and random phrases as he went. Two blocks down, he found a random boutique with electric blue words above it that read, "The scribe requests the police spend their time dealing with criminals instead of erasing art".

More cracked sidewalks lead him down a short path as he finally got to where he was going. It was a little convenience store with a bell that half-heartedly chimed when he opened the door made of dusty windows and scratched up metal, so dirty it was nearly opaque. Wandering through the isles, he found cheap products, with brightly colored and eye-catching packaging that promised very little about the taste. At the back of the store, there was a small stand with sandwiches and a sign that promised they were made daily. He grabbed four, and then four bottles of soda from a nearby fridge too, struggling to hold it all in his hands as he went to the cashier.

Someone stopped him with a hand on his chest, and he looked up from where his eyes had been glued on the floor to see some guy glaring down at him. He had a black eye and a scar on his cheek, standing a head taller than Youngjae and clearly more built. His face was brutish and his teeth yellowing, like a cartoon villain brought to real life. His words were drawled and slow, voice higher than expected given his look. “You new 'round here, princess? Don’t think I’ve seen you before.” His accent was near foreign to Youngjae. He shrugged him off with the intent to keep going only to have his arm yanked, which brought him back painfully as his sandwiches and bottles fell to the ground. The bottle made of glass shattered, which brought the attention of the others in the store to the two. He could hear the store clerk sigh from the counter, but he made no move to come over to them. “‘Bit rude to not introduce yourself, don't’cha think?” The brute drawled out.

"’Bit rude to corner the new kid too," a voice from an aisle over drawled, like smooth honey poured into hot tea. Their eyes drifted over to a group of three boys, two like bodyguards around the third, who’s tanned skin glowed even under the flourescent lights. His sported brown, messy hair under the backwards snapback and eyes as black as the night, the light reflected in them like stars. His shirt, with ‘Obey’ written across the chest, hung loosely over his fit frame and let loose around his thick, toned arms. Thick lips etched out a smirk to match his wide, proud stance like the whole world belonged solely to him. "Didn’t I teach you a lesson already? This store’s on my territory, so get the fuck out." The two boys on either side of him nodded.

"Come on, man," The brute in front of Youngjae whined. "Red Tiger will kick my ass if I step on their turf, and my mom sent me out for milk. The nearest place I can buy it without getting the shit beat out of me is 30 blocks from here." The guy in the ‘Obey’ shirt, thumbs dipped into the pockets of his baggy jeans and head tilted a bit with pride, squinted just a bit in amusement. The brute whined like a child, "seriously, I’ll buy it and go, I don’t need another black eye." 

"That’s right. You don’t, do you? ‘Can only stand getting your ass kicked once a week, right? I’ll tell you what, I’m in a good mood, so I’ll let the new kid decide. What do you say, pretty boy," he was looking at Youngjae now, something a bit threatening in his tone as he mocked the old song, "should he stay or should he go?" The two boys beside him snickered, and Youngjae could see the store clerk giving them a wary look. The cocky guy looked over and shot a quick, jerky nod at him, which seemed to make his relax a little, although he still eyed the brute that had stopped Youngjae with suspicion and distrust.

"He should fuck off," Youngjae’s voice was quiet, but cold, as he stared at his food on the ground. The three boys snickered, as if they thought Youngjae's rather charged statement held something comical behind it. The brute let out a small growl, but Youngjae was not afraid.

"You heard him then," The cocky guy told the brute who had stopped him. "Get the fuck out. ‘I see you on my streets again and I’ll make that face even uglier than what your mom doled out."

"That’d be a challenge," One of the boys, the shortest of the three, snickered, "He’s already hideous."

"Watch your fucking back," The brute growled at him, with a soft push to Youngjae’s chest. He stormed toward the exit and knocking a couple things off the shelves in the process. "You’re a fucking douche, Daehyun." He added over his shoulder.

"Damn straight," the cocky boy, Daehyun apparently, replied, "but you touch the new kid and I’ll fuck you up." The bell chimed and he was gone. Daehyun turned to the short boy next to him to give firm instructions. "Spread the word, no wolves on our territory anymore. I don't want them in here bothering Captain, I don't want them down at the salon giving Hani trouble, and I don't want them on my turf in general. They've overstayed their welcome."

Youngjae ducked down to gathered his sandwiches in one arm before wading through the fragmented glass to get the three bottles of soda that remained. "What about the wolf pup?" He heard the short boy say.

"He knows he's not allowed here," was Daehyun's answer.

"He's harmless," the final boy in the trio noted, in a voice so deep it shook Youngjae to his core. He gulped.

"Sure he is," Daehyun didn't sound convinced, "I don't buy his innocent act one bit. We don’t need him making things harder on Junhong. Keep him out of here."

When Youngjae stood, the three bottles were taken from his hands. He went to glare at whoever took them, only to see the rather scary, quiet third man, who simply replaced them with four new sodas of the same type. He took the three shaken up ones himself, and went off to the door. "Daehyun, I gotta get back to work." His deep voice sent a shiver up Youngjae's spine. Again, his throat was dry. "Himchan will kill me if someone comes in while I'm not there."

"Go ahead, Yongguk, I'll catch up," Daehyun said with a wave of his hand. The bell chimed again, and Yongguk was gone. Youngjae shifted the things in his arms around and made his way to the register slowly. "I mean it. Our tolerance policy for the wolf pack is over," Daehyun was saying.

"You sure this won’t just make things worse? They don't have any shops on their streets, just houses. That’s why they’re always here," The short boy pointed out.

"It's not my fault they decided to start fights and harass people on my streets. We're better off without them here," Daehyun said firmly. “Since when did you start actin’ like ‘Chan?”

"I was just sayin’. Honestly, I thought you should’a’ kicked ‘em out the first time Chansub started yankin’ kids around, but Himchan would’a’ kicked my ass if I didn’t say somethin’, you know? I’m not about to go messin’ with him."

Youngjae finally made it to the register and carefully put down his things as the door bell chimed again. When he turned, the short boy had gone, leaving him and Daehyun. He turned to go back into the aisles with the intention to get some bags of chips, only to be stopped by Daehyun. His cocky smirk stretched over his thick lips again. "You're cute, new kid. What’s your name?”

"Why do you need to know?" Youngjae answered. 

“‘Cause you live on my block now, and I know everyone here.” Daehyun adopted that cocky stance he had had before, with his thumbs dipping into his pockets and his head tilted a bit to the side. He licked his lips, more amused than put off by Youngjae's rejection. “Besides, I run this place, so staying on my good side is in your best interest. Right now, I think I like you, so don’t ruin it by being difficult.” 

"I’m Youngjae."

"Jung Daehyun," he replied, "if anyone ever gives you trouble, you tell me, and I’ll see to it they end up in the hospital, got it?" He winked, then there was that stupid smirk again. 

Youngjae clenched his hands into fists, narrowed his eyes, and thinned his lips. "I can take care of myself."

"Against Chansub maybe," Daehyun nodded to the door, and Youngjae assumed that was the name of the brute. "He couldn't throw a punch for his life and even if he could, he's too scared. But the rest of the wolf pack boys would tear you apart, babe."

"I'm not your 'babe’," Youngjae challenged. Daehyun took a step closer so they were almost chest to chest, just an inch between them, and leered down as Youngjae's face flushed.

A pleased smile crossed Daehyun's face. Youngjae tried to back away, but his back was against the counter. He swallowed the dryness in his throat as his heart pounded "You want to be, though, don't you?" Daehyun teased.

"How delusional are you?" Youngjae accused, making Daehyun laugh and step away.

"You're fun to mess with," He said, with an approving nod, and stepped out of the way. "Hey, Captain." Daehyun's attention was now turned to the man behind the register. Youngjae had to take a moment to collect himself before he could head out to get his chips. "Jin's got work tonight, so Jimin will be getting Minah." 

"Which one is Jimin? Does she know him?" The man behind the register asked, his voice gravelly and holding its age.

"The one that just left," Daehyun answered, "I'm pretty sure she knows him. If not, have her text me and I'll send ‘im over before she leaves." The man behind the counter agreed and Youngjae heard the bell chime again as he kept his eyes fixed on the couple brands of chips. It shouldn't have been such a hard decision, but he felt his brain short-circuiting. 

"Minah!" He heard the old man behind the register call into the door behind him. Youngjae looked up and saw the small staircase in the corner of the room back there. Footsteps came down, and a second later a sweet-looking girl with a round face and a pleasant smile joined them in the shop. "Daehyun says Jimin is picking you up from the library today," The old man said, “you know him, right?”

"Okay, that’s no problem," She answered, "I know which one he is." A couple more words were exchanged between them, but Youngjae had stopped paying attention in favor of grabbing four random bags of chips and heading back to the register.

Minah had gone back up the stairs by then, and the old man behind the register turned to him. "You alright, Youngjae? Chansub’s all talk; don’t worry about him."

"I'm fine," he answered. 

"Don't worry too much about Daehyun either. He's a good kid, just tryin’ his best to keep things safe around here. " There was a pause while he finished scanning the items. "It's twenty dollars." 

"He seems like an asshole,"  Youngjae commented as he dug through his wallet.

"I can get that," The shopkeeper answered, "But he’s not a bad kid. Gets into fights, makes his mom worry, stays out too late, and all that, but he’s not a bad kid. Keeps clean and all. The block’s been lower on crime since he took over. One of his boys even walks my daughter home whenever she stays late at school studying."

"Is he a gang leader?"  Youngjae asked as he handed over the money he had and took the bag of his stuff off the counter.

"Yeah," The shopkeeper answered, apprehension in his voice, "something like that. We got a pretty big problem with that ‘round here, but he keeps his streets as clean as he can get them. Be careful around here, kid."

"Thanks, Sir,"  Youngjae replied. 

"Call me Captain," The shopkeeper told him, "all the people 'round here do."

"See you around, Captain,"  Youngjae said, his voice distant.

"Be safe out there." Captain replied.

Youngjae almost forgot how hot it was until he stepped out of the little shop and that oppressive heat started to bear down on him again. He walked down the cracked pavement again, as the graffiti marked his path home.

He no longer hugged the street line as he walked. His mind was focused on Daehyun, on that stupid smirk that seemed permanently etched on the other's face.  Youngjae kind of wanted to punch him.

He kind of wanted to do a lot of things to him, and very few of those things were violent.

He passed the tattoo parlor again, and refused to peer inside on the off chance that Daehyun would be there. He was still embarrassed by how flustered he had gotten, although he told himself it must not have shown.

"Hey!" A voice called out from one of the alleyways, catching his attention. "Hey, kid, come here!"  Youngjae turned his head to see a young man with blue hair balanced on top of a ladder, a can of spray paint in his hand. 

"What?"  Youngjae asked from the mouth of the alleyway.

"Pass me the red, would you?" The boy asked.  Youngjae came and tossed up the red one. The black can the boy had been working with was tossed down. "You're new, aren't you?" The boy asked.

"How can you tell?"

"Most people just ask what color I want when I call out to them," The boy answered, "what's your name then?"

" Youngjae ."

"I'm Zelo.” 

"You know this is illegal, right?"  Youngjae asked.

"Art?" Zelo answered, "sure, in some forms. But, morally, is there anything wrong with me putting paint on a wall to make something beautiful? Especially an ugly old wall like this one?"

"Morally, no, but it's illegal,"  Youngjae  replied.

Zelo smiled, going back to his spray painting as he spoke. He pulled a mask over his lips, feasibly to keep him from inhaling the spray paint, but it made it hard to hear him. "If you only judge the world on legality, you miss the big picture,  Youngjae . A lot of bad things aren't illegal. A lot of things that can be good are. Don't you think it's a little shallow to depend on the law then?"

"Wow, you  _ are  _ full of bullshit."  Youngjae replied, proud of himself for being right.

"Maybe," Zelo answered, "but you can't say I'm wrong, can you?" He seemed proud of himself when  Youngjae relented. 

"What are you painting?" He asked, staring up at the odd colors covering the wall.

Zelo pulled away to stare at it for a moment before he looked down at  Youngjae . "It's going to be space. There's a couple little kids in that building, and they apparently hate this boring brick wall. I'm going to paint the universe for them. Pass me the black again."

Youngjae tossed it up and Zelo sprayed it over all of the things he had just paint, leaving only a circle covered by newspaper untouched. When he lifted the newspaper, a colorful planet stood amongst the black. "You're good at this,"  Youngjae commented.

"I've been doing it a while.” 

"Junhong," A voice interrupted them, and they both turned to see a police officer standing in the mouth of the alleyway.  Youngjae froze for a moment, afraid he would be arrested for whatever weird reason. 

"Is it Sunday, Officer?" Zelo replied. He climbed down from the ladder, gathered the spray paint cans, and put them in his backpack. 

"Of course," The officer replied, "can\ you just call me ‘dad’, please?" He pleaded once Zelo was closer to him, quieter as if to keep Youngjae from hearing.

"Now's not the time," Zelo answered coldly, "let's just go make dinner. We don’t want to be late again; she was angry enough last time."  T he two went off and Zelo just barely remembered to call out to  Youngjae that he'd see him around.

He could still hear them as he exited the alley himself, turning the opposite way to head back home. "You still haven't even looked at the scholarshi—"

"I'm not going to the police academy,  _ Father _ ."

"You could at least consider i—"

"No. I told you, when graduate, I'm doing art. Stop trying to pressure me into—"  Youngjae could not hear them anymore, nor did he really want to. 

Finally, he reached his building again, marked by those words he had read at the start. "I will set your caged heart free, provided only you do the same for me." He read aloud, before entering the building and climbing the stairs. It was a small building, with each level being a singular apartment. He was unsurprised to find the door to the apartment open, his family still unpacking inside. "I got food." He announced.

"Took you long enough." His brother grumbled, coming to rifle through  Youngjae 's bag from the convenience store. "Was the store that far? I thought the landlord said it was close."

"It was like six blocks,"  Youngjae replied, "I just kept running into weird people along the way."

"Isn't that what you said the first time you met your last boyfriend?" His brother asked before biting into a sandwich.

"Shut up,"  Youngjae answered.

"Oh, don't tease him, dear," their mother chastised, "let's just eat quickly so we can finish unpacking."


	2. Chapter 2

The alleyways that lead in between buildings on convoluted paths were the best place to see tags, pieces, and everything in between. Daehyun caught a couple of his own, each with his king crown, as he weaved through the alleys. He stopped when he reached the work he was looking for, in the heart of the alleys that lead behind the convenience store. 

A woman's face was painted on the wall. Soft lines spouted from the corners of her eyes to form the wrinkles of a life spent laughing. It was all one color, just black lines on the red brick. Her lips were curved into a tired smile; her eyes had small bags underneath. A small line, done with a paintbrush instead of a spray paint can, drew out her tear bags that bent with her smile. Her hair was pulled back messily, swept over the sides of her face with a strand close to resting over one of her eyes. The tips of that hair reached down passed the outline of her shoulders and turned to butterflies, stenciled on the wall while the rest had been painted free hand. They flew off and up the sides of the mural, growing larger the higher up they went.

There, by the corner that held Daehyun's tag that declared him the artist, sat Zelo. "Found you," Daehyun said. He sat by the blue-haired boy's side, their eyes fixed on the mural instead of each other.

"If you were only going to stencil part of the piece, you should have been more careful to not run over the edges," Zelo replied as he ran his fingers over the L shaped lines around the edge of one of the butterflies. There were only a couple such lines on the mural, and most looked as though they had been at least partially removed. "What did you use for it?"

"Old binder covers," Daehyun drawled, "I bummed them off the other students back in high school. When I ran out, I got Captain to donate the shipment boxes and used the cardboard from those. I don't know why I thought making so many stencils would be easier than just painting the butterflies. I already gave in and used a brush for part of it. I did the big ones up top free hand, I couldn't find anything big enough to make a stencil out of."

"That's why they look so messy," Zelo commented. His voice was tired and drained, but Daehyun didn't think he meant what he said in a cruel sense. He had bags under his eyes and was shaking the littlest bit. In the intermittent silence, he took a moment to peel his eyes away from his old mural and watch Zelo instead. He seemed near transfixed with the piece, his bottom lip tugged between his teeth as he stared. Those large eyes that Zelo bore held some small red rings around them. Soon enough, his eyes tore away from the mural to meet Daehyun's, and a smile tugged on his lips. "You may be a king, but I could do it better," he teased.

Daehyun shoved him lightly and laughter bubbled out of both of their lips. "Respect your elders. I was younger than you when I made this. It was my first piece."

The conversation died out for a couple minutes, with the soft sounds of windows and doors opening occasionally filling their silence.  Daehyun wrapped his arm around Zelo's shoulders and shook him as a form of momentary brotherly comfort. Zelo responded by leaning his head on Daehyun's shoulder. "Did she like it?" His soft voice broke the silence.

"'Said it was the best Mother's Day gift she ever got," he answered in a proud drawl, and then watched the way Zelo's face fell and sighed. "She'll see your stuff one day, kid. You just gotta be patient." There was another pause, more uncomfortable than the previous ones. "There's no use moping; let's go."

He stood, offering his hand to Zelo and helping him up. "'The boys meeting today?" Zelo asked.

"Yeah, and I'm sure they'd be happy if you came. Come on, it'll do you good to get away from the alleys for a bit." His wrist was grabbed and Zelo let himself be dragged down the alley path. Most of the artwork there was not Zelo's, too old for a relative newcomer. Bubble-lettered words read 'Obey' at every turn, a mark of Daehyun's ownership over each passing alley. Soon enough he had let go, and they weaved through the city of backdoors.

A bright light filtered in that signaled the mouth of the alleyway. They instead turned for the gray door, windowless, against the concrete walls of the back of a building. They came in through the back room filled to the brim with boxes. There were so many they had begun to pile up on the stairs that lead to the owner's apartment, and the only part of the room that was clear was the small desk standing in the corner with only a desk lamp and a mountain of papers piled on top. Above it, on the wall, hung a small medal on a blue velvet background. Zelo wandered for the door that would lead out of the store room, but Daehyun stopped him. "Come on," he said with a nod of his head toward the stairs.

"Are you sure she'll be home?"

"Yeah, I told her I was coming," Daehyun replied, using his key to open the door at the top and letting them both inside. "Minah!" He called out, toeing off his shoes before he stepped into the small hallway. Zelo followed after him, less at home than Daehyun in Captain's apartment. "Hey," he smiled when Minah came into view.

"Hey," She cheered in response, turning to them for just a moment. "Dad says you have to pay for these." She noticed Zelo, then. "Oh, Zelo! I haven't seen you in forever." She turned back to the kitchen counter then, surrounded by small loaves of bread and cold cuts and continued slicing into tomatoes. Daehyun came to lean up on the counter beside her while Zelo remained in the doorway of the kitchen.

"It's been a while, yeah," Zelo agreed, "How's classes?"

"My summer courses are going to kill me," she answered with a melodic whine. "I don't know why I thought this was a good idea." She paused to smack Daehyun's hand away as he went reach for a slice of tomato. "I have a knife, Daehyun. I will stab you with it."

"You wouldn't." Daehyun's smile was warm but cocky. "Jin wouldn't like you anymore if you stabbed his friend."

"Shut up," she grumbled, but soon enough she was smiling along with Daehyun's smug grin. "So, Zelo, how are things going with...?" Daehyun had grabbed her arm, shaking his head, and Minah's voice trailed off as a result. "With the murals?" She tried as her voice regained its chipper edge.

"She's okay," Zelo answered, "Not better, but... you know... she's not getting any worse."

"That's good," Minah replied, her voice back to it's normal tone. "Did you manage to run into your secret admirer yet, or is he still out there looking?" She could feel the way Daehyun stiffened beside her and gave him a quizzical look.

"Wolves aren't allowed here anymore. Not even the wolf pup." The two shared a moment of staring as Minah's eyebrows furrowed.

"Oh, come on," Zelo whined, "Can't you give him a pass until I run into him? Himchan's been going on about him for a month now; he seems like some harmless kid."

"You're a kid," Daehyun retorted, "and they started it." It went silent with the authority in Daehyun's tone, but the silence only lasted a couple seconds. "You ever gonna finish that sunflower mural?" Daehyun finally succeeded in stealing a tomato slice from Minah's growing pile. She only rolled her eyes at him and began putting together the sandwiches, while he grabbed the plastic wrap and wrapped them for her.

"Eventually," Zelo answered.

"Any chance of you showing me your black book? I'm sure you've got the full sketch down, and I'm curious what these final touches you haven't added are."

"Not a chance." Zelo's voice came out harsh, and he stepped back a little as if to protect his portfolio.

Daehyun only rolled his eyes. "You did this with the flower too. You're not gonna pull some bullshit and paint it all black again, are you?" The small pile of sandwiches started to grow, each wrapped a little messily by Daehyun. "Not even Yongguk used to pull that level of philosophical bullshit back when he was on the scene, and his biggest idol was  _ fucking Banksy _ ."

"Oh, let him be," Minah told him, "Zelo, will you come put the stickers on for me? The guys at the factory will be getting out for lunch soon and I'm sure you two wanna get out of here anyway." 

"Yeah, ‘can't stand bein’ 'round you too long," Daehyun joked, and he was promptly shoved while his loud laugh filled the apartment.

Zelo picked the tags off the table, and set to putting them on the wrapped sandwiches while the other two worked. Between the three of them, they finished up quickly, and Minah made a couple other sandwiches that bore no stickers, but were instead put in a paper bag for Daehyun. They carried the rest of them downstairs, and helped Minah set them up on the sandwich stand in the back of the convenience store. Eventually, Daehyun left them to finish up while he paid for the ones he was taking. "Come on, Cap', I'm unofficial family. This is cruel."

"Key word is unofficial," Captain replied, "you only get 'em free if you're actually blood-related." There was a pause with the ding of the register, and Minah and Zelo met him at the counter. 

"Ready to go?" Zelo asked Daehyun.

"Yeah. One sec'." Daehyun nodded. He turned to Minah briefly. "Jin got them to switch his hours back to normal, so he'll be pickin' you up tonight. Apparently the manager's giving him a lot of shit for wanting pre-midnight hours though, so if Jimin or someone shows up, don't be too shocked."

"If it's so much trouble I can just walk back from the library by myself," Minah replied, her voice raising a bit in pitch.

"Absolutely not," Daehyun and Captain said at the same time. 

"Worse comes to worse, I'll come get you myself," Daehyun told her, "I got switched to the early morning shift now, so I could even just switch out with Jin if you want."

"No, that's okay!" Minah said quickly.

Daehyun snorted a bit, ruffling her hair. "Aw, you have such a big crush on him that you'd rather see him than me? Years of friendship and that's how you treat me?" He continued to cajole.

Minah's face burned bright red. "You're the worst," She whined.

"I know," Daehyun seemed pleased. "I'll catch you later, alright? Text Jin if you want to leave early." They said their goodbyes and Zelo and Daehyun headed out, snaking back through the alleyways on a short cut to the end of the block and continuing down the street to Himchan's apartment. While Daehyun openly stared at the sunflower mural when they passed it, Zelo kept his eyes fixed ahead of them. "It is pretty," Daehyun commented, "'Bit brash to be puttin’ it street-side, but I guess cops don't do shit when your dad's part of 'em."

"Shut up," Zelo grumbled, "I don't wanna talk about it."

"About family shit? I get it," Daehyun replied. He wrapped his arm around Zelo for a moment, despite the difficulty of Zelo being at least two inches taller than him. Zelo shrugged his arm off and sped up his pace.

"No,” Zelo's voice was shaky as he replied, "about the piece. I don't want to talk about it."

Daehyun nodded and shoved his hands in his pocket. He didn't seem surprised by his friend’s behavior. "How 'bout that space one then? The one you're doin' for the kids in the rose building?"

Zelo sighed, peering into the alley as they passed it. "It's gonna take at least a week to get it done all the way. I fucked up and tried using newspaper to make the planets instead of a pot. 'Figured I already cause Yongguk enough trouble by taking up space in his apartment, I didn't wanna make it worse by ruining one of his pots too."

"My mom has some old ones that we can't use anymore. 'Got big scratches down them, and she got my grandma's old pots from the fifties a couple months back anyway. She's been talkin’ 'bout getting rid of ours, 'says they just take up room. You want 'em?"

Zelo gave a small smile. "Thanks. I also forgot to ask Yongguk for the old magazine pages they leave in the tattoo parlor. You think he'll be there? Or Himchan?” He paused. “I guess it could wait 'til I get back tonight, but normally he stays down at the parlor until after I've fallen asleep and I'm not keen on staying up all night."

"He and Himchan said they'd be there for a bit during lunch break," Daehyun replied. They were nearing the apartment building then, and could already see the large group of boys gathered on the stoop out front. Some sat on the railings instead, and a couple on the concrete of the sidewalk. Yongguk and Himchan were already there as well, sitting on the hood of Himchan's car. "I still can't believe they buffed out all the graffiti on his car once they graduated high school," Daehyun grumbled in a whisper as they approached. "Just 'cause they got old doesn't mean they gotta act like it."

"You mostly stopped doing graffiti when you graduated too." Zelo remarked. "Seems like tradition."

Daehyun didn't reply, instead turning his attention to the others. "Look who I found,," Daehyun cheered. The boys gave a couple seconds of hooting and hollering as Zelo was dragged down to sit between them. A shy smile quickly filled Zelo's face. "Seriously, kid, it's been a long time since we all got to see you. You kind of went M.I.A." He started tossing out sandwiches, much to the delight of the eleven or so boys gathered there.

"'Visited Minah then?" Jimin asked. The boys around him started chuckling, quickly met with confusion from Daehyun.

'''Course I did," Daehyun replied, "Why would you care 'bout that?"

"You two are hanging a lot lately. You like her?" Jimin continued. Jin, next to him, stiffened. His eyes look a bit nervous and unnerved when he met Daehyun's, and he gulped the littlest bit.

"Gross," Daehyun answered, scrunching up his nose as he took a seat on top of the roof of Himchan's car. "She's basically my little sister." There was a pause while he unwrapped his own sandwich, before his eyes landed on Jin, whose face turned nervous all over again. "Which is why, if any of you fuckheads try and pull something on her, you'll have to answer to me."

Jin looked like he was about to say something, but was cut off by Yoongi. "Man, why don't you just say his name if you're going to call him out like that?"

"I'm not calling anyone out," Daehyun's voice was a little threatening, enough that everyone knew he was serious. "I'm just sayin’ that if any of you are thinkin’ of dating her, you better treat her right." There was a pause, followed by a change of subject as sandwiches were munched down. Eventually Daehyun cut into the conversation again, completely changing it's topic. "Anyone else meet the new kid yesterday?" 

"Depends, what did he look like?" Himchan asked.

"Black hair, big eyes, super quiet. What was his name again?" He asked Jimin, before pretending to remember. "Youngjae?"

"I met him," Zelo said, "he's kind of rude." He added, balling up his empty plastic wrap and tossing it into the empty paper bag resting on the sidewalk. "But he was cute." Everyone noticed the way Daehyun stiffened. "Well, he was," Zelo mumbled into the awkward silence.

"I met him too," Himchan added to break the silence. "He was staring at Zelo's piece and I went out to chat with him."

"What's his deal?" Daehyun asked. He was a bit shocked by the way his friends responded, chuckling just like they had before. "What? I always ask about the new kids, why are you all so giggly today?"

"You only ask what someone's deal is when you want to fuck them or beat them up," Yoongi commented. 

"No I don't," Daehyun objected, "I just wanna know the basics like always. If he's gonna live on my streets I might as well know about him, right?" He was met with disbelief and outright cries that he was lying. Daehyun ignored his friends outcries, instead focusing on Himchan.

"Well, if you genuinely just want to know about the new kid then I guess you want to know about his brother too, right?" Himchan was smirking as he spoke. "He's twenty and a med student. Plus—" When Daehyun cut him off all of the others started laughing. Despite the red Daehyun felt burning at his cheeks, he knew it would not show on his tanned skin. He had better control over himself than that.

"I don't care about his brother," Daehyun said.

"Good 'cause that's all I got outta Youngjae about him," Himchan laughed. "He said he's starting at the university soon, so he's probably 'bout eighteen. I didn't ask where he was from, but it sounded like a Seoul accent. That's about all I got out of him. Kid's real quiet, but if you met him, I'm sure you got that. 'Don't think he said more than five words in one go the whole time we were talking."

"So you like him?" Jungkook pried. Daehyun glared at him.

"Oh, come on," Jin added, "You haven't been in a relationship in three years, Daehyun, and it's been like four since you've had any interest in a dude. You can't blame us for being curious." There was a pause while they waited with bated breath, but Daehyun still didn't answer them. "We were just all thinking maybe you'd be getting tired of random hookups?" His voice came out soft. Daehyun sighed.

"I don't see why it matters," Daehyun said, "if I find someone I like enough to date, I'll date them. Otherwise, one night stands are great."

"Still," Himchan was the next to speak, "'you like Youngjae then or not?" The others joined in, cajoling him until he admitted it.

"Fine, yeah, he's hot," Daehyun said with a roll of his eyes, "'doesn't mean I'm gonna get down on one knee or nothin’. I just don't think he'd be bad to hook up with, you know? Maybe friends with benefits or some shit."

"That's it?" Zelo asked expectantly.

Daehyun gulped, and he looked away from the group of them. "Yeah, that's it. He is the first guy in a while, though, I'll give you that. Don't think I've wanted to get with a guy since like 10th grade," He said with a shrug.

"Since you and Suwoong broke up?" Yongguk asked.

"Nah," Daehyun clarified quickly, as if to claim the high school break up had not affected him that much. "I hooked up with some guys after him, but I just kind of lost interest." The sound of a door opening across the street caught their attention. The road had been rather quiet and devoid of life, so they were all curious to see if it was the old lady on the first floor that yelled whenever she thought they were making a racket.

Instead a young boy was closing the door behind him, in a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans. He had a bright blue beanie pulled over his black hair and his coffee-colored eyes caught onto their staring almost immediately. Daehyun stiffened and gulped from atop the car.

"Is that him?" Jin was whispering to Zelo, only to have Daehyun's ball of plastic wrap thrown at his head with a swift hiss to shut up.

His boys snickered as Daehyun twisted his body towards the staring boy once again. "Hey, new kid!" Daehyun called out, waving him over. "Come over here." They could see the way Youngjae paused, as if debating whether or not to continue on and ignore Daehyun's call. After a second or two, he stepped forward, weaving through the parked cars on the side of the street. He paused to look both ways before he crossed, which elicited snickers from Daehyun and his boys. "Hey, pretty boy," Daehyun's voice adopted a cocky, flirty tone. "Jaywalking? Such a bad boy."

"Fuck off," was Youngjae's response.

"Oh, so cold, babe," Daehyun teased, "you might just freeze my heart." He could hear his friends laugh behind him, but paid them no mind as they went to carry whispered conversations. "You got somewhere to be?”

Youngjae paused and bit his lip for just a moment. "Not particularly." 

"Then chill here for a bit," Daehyun suggested. There was a pause after Youngjae nodded. It was awkward for a moment or two before he set on leaning on Himchan's car. Daehyun had turned around on top of the old tan sedan to face him, but the others remained on the concrete stoop, now chatting amongst themselves. Both Yongguk and Himchan had left the hood of the car to join the boys on the stoop, and occasionally loud laughter would roar over Youngjae and Daehyun's conversation. "You likin’ it 'round here?" Daehyun asked. He realized then he did not have anything really to talk to Youngjae about, and his usual flirting did not seem good enough.

"It's too hot."

Daehyun chuckled. "You'll get used to it. You from somewhere up North then?"

"Seoul."

"You sound like you're from Seoul." Daehyun commented with his usual drawl. "So you're livin’ in the 'Love Me' building then?" He asked, nodding to the building Youngjae had come out of.

"What?" Youngjae replied. His eyebrows furrowed, looking back at the building for a moment before staring at Daehyun in confusion.

"'Round here we call buildings by whatever piece of graffiti has had the longest run on it. 'Don't know if you've been in the alley that goes beside it yet, but on the side of the building someone wrote 'Love Me'. It's been there since the 80's so we always call it that." Youngjae looked at him with arguably more confusion, and so to fill the silence Daehyun kept talking. "The cops don't really come 'round here often, if they can avoid it. We don't have a lot of gang-violence like the North Burrow and we aren't rich like the South Shore so they don't really pay attention to us. Since they don't pay attention to us, they don't really go erasing our shit either. At least, so long as it’s not somewhere super visible."

"But, you're in a gang," Youngjae replied, focused on only one part of Daehyun's words.

"I'd prefer to call it a neighborhood watch," Daehyun said, although he didn't seem quite serious. His eyes crinkled up into a smile and his lips twisted into a smirk. "I didn't say no gangs; I said not a lot of violence. If you go about five blocks passed the convenience store you hit this place we call 'the strip'. It's a couple narrow roads that lead by the train tracks and some warehouses. If the cops get called to somewhere around here, it's there. All we do is make sure their shit doesn't get into our bit of the neighborhood."

"So you're a delinquent, but in a good way." Youngjae's voice was cold, but he had the smallest of amused smiles on his face.

Daehyun rolled his eyes. "Hey, I'm just saying, we don't have much drug dealin’ going on here, we don't have many fights, the alleys are safe, and so long as I like you, you're good to walk the streets at night without worry. Speaking of which," He turned back to the others. "Yo, guys! Keep pretty boy and his family safe, alright? Beat the shit outta anyone givin’ em trouble."

“I can handle myself,” Youngjae insisted.

"’Doesn’t mean your parents can. Besides, it’s just better when we all look out for each other. Anyway, you're in the 'love me' building?" He went back to his original question. "Or you made friends already?"

"I live there."

"If you tell me what floor I could pay you a visit," Daehyun suggested, "'Figure it might be good to have someone to chill with since you're new and all." He added a shrug at the end of the sentence, but he for some reason felt the slightest bit nervous. He licked his lips and played with his fingers as he waited for Youngjae's reply.

"Third floor." Youngjae paused for a moment, biting his lip before he continued. "My window's the one on the fire escape."

Daehyun smiled. "Cool. I'll drop by sometime." Another silent pause was filled by Daehyun's voice. "How old are you?" He asked, as if he was just trying to keep the conversation going.

"Eighteen, and you?" Youngjae asked.

"I'm turnin’ nineteen in a couple days. So are you goin’ to college or something soon?" Youngjae nodded. "Where?"

"The university downtown." Youngjae replied. "You?"

"'Didn't go," Daehyun replied with a shrug. "School's not really my thing." He paused to lick his lips and dropped his legs to rest on the side of the car instead of being folded criss-cross in front of him. "'Figured there were better things I could do with my time that I'd actually like."

"Like beating people up?" Youngjae teased.

"Nah, I don’t actually like that so much. I wanna be an EMT. What about you, college boy? What are you plannin’ on studying?"

"I don't know."

"Well what are you tryin’ to pick between?" Daehyun prompted.

"Everything," Youngjae answered. Daehyun snorted.

"Sounds like you got it all figured out, babe." Youngjae rolled his eyes at the nickname, which made Daehyun smile. "I could call you something else if you don't like 'babe', boo," he teased. 

"That's worse." Youngjae’s face turned a little red, which elicited a fit of pleased giggles from Daehyun.

"How 'bout princess then?" Daehyun teased. "You aren't really the 'princess' type, but it'll do if nothing else will." He winked then, letting the amused smile grace his face at Youngjae's apparent discontent.

"How about Youngjae?" He shot back.

"You're no fun," Daehyun whined. "'Boo' it is then. You free all day then? We're probably gonna run down to the bus depot and see if we can throw something up on a couple of the 200 buses before they head out tonight." There was a pause as Youngjae stared at him. "The 200 is a night bus, so it's parked in the bus depot right now. My boys and I are planning on going and spray painting a couple things on them."

"Today?" Youngjae asked. Daehyun confirmed. "Can't come."

"Why not?" Daehyun asked.

"We're still unpacking," Youngjae said.

"You really are no fun, babe," Daehyun repeated, although his voice was still light and teasing. "You'll have to come play with us another time then. Only warning is we play rough, boo."

Youngjae swallowed. "Who says I'd wanna do anything with you?" He asked, a sort of smugness in his voice. It translated to a smug grin when he saw the way Daehyun's face took on the momentary shock, and Daehyun seemed to relax immediately after.

Daehyun slid down from the top of the car, taking a step before he turned, which left Youngjae stuck between him and the car door he was leaning on. Youngjae's face took on a blush at the proximity, even if they weren't touching. Daehyun's face went dark and he let his voice drop to a murmur. "I think you do, don't you, boo?" Youngjae gulped. 

He didn't answer, but he did meet Daehyun's eyes. A sort of proud smirk twisted on Daehyun's face at Youngjae's reaction to him being so close. "I've changed my mind, 'babe' is better."

Daehyun's smirk washed away with a bubbling laugh, and his eyes crinkled to form those same lines as the ones he had painted in his mural. "Babe it is then," he agreed. Youngjae was smiling along then, and it was about a minute of staring at each other before they realized they should be talking still. "Still, some other time, yeah? Once things are unpacked?"

"Yeah," Youngjae smiled. After a second he took a deep breath and peered down the street. Daehyun gulped. "I should, uh, I should get going."

"Yeah?" Daehyun said, his voice containing hints of sadness. "Where are you off too?" He stepped out of Youngjae's way.

"I'm supposed to buy lunch," Youngjae answered. He pivoted a little as he stepped away from Daehyun so that he remained facing him. "I'll see you around."

"See you later," Daehyun agreed. Youngjae smiled again, and gave a small wave before he pivoted on one food and headed off in the direction of the convenience store. Daehyun watched him go, his eyes fixed on the slowly disappearing form. When Youngjae was no longer in sight, he rounded the car and sat on the hood with full intention of talking to his friends. After a moment, though, he was burying his face in his hands instead.

"Daehyun?" Himchan called. "Everything good?"

Daehyun dropped his hands, meeting his friends' eyes for a second before he went peering down the street where Youngjae had disappeared again. "He's really cute," Daehyun admitted.

"So you  _ do _ like him!" Jungkook accused with excitement.

"Shut up," Daehyun grumbled. His friends all started shouting again, but they calmed down soon enough.

"What's your plan for getting him to like you?"  Himchan asked.

Daehyun shrugged. He hadn't really thought of it. A car finally drove passed them, giving him a moment to think as its soft roar carried over the potholes in the asphalt road. "Use my natural charm and good looks?" Daehyun guessed.

"I thought you wanted him to like you," Zelo cut in, "that'll never work." 

There were snorts among his friends and Daehyun couldn't help but counter. "It's worked in the past," he paused, "fuck, what am I going to do?"

"Don't have sex with him," Himchan was the one to answer, "No, I'm serious. If you wanna date him, hold off on getting in his pants until after you two are together. It'll only make things more complicated if you do it first and then ask him out. If you just wanna fuck him, do what you always do. For some reason, people really seem to fall for your cocky-but-clingy thing."

"I can do that," Daehyun said, "besides, I'm not even sure I like him that much. It'll probably be like normal: we’ll have some awesome sex and then I’ll be over it." Daehyun gulped down any thoughts that that wasn't true.


	3. Chapter 3

'LOVE ME' was written in an explosive orange to yellow fade, outlined in black. Each point of a letter curled out into an arrow which spread across the brown brick of Youngjae's apartment building. Surrounding the words was a cartoon explosion of red. White lines left from that explosion and immediately after each sat a small five-point star. The image was cracked and faded after years of existence. Bits had peeled off the wall and sat in the puddles that gathered where the alley met the side of the building. Outside the red explosion sat cartoon flowers of white or gold, each near the exact same as the others of its color. They were followed by black lines that curled around the piece in a circle, as if to mark the edges of where it ended.

There was a peace sign next to the explosive order, simple and black in comparison to the once bright colors of the art by its side. 'Love anyone. Love Everyone. Just Love, Love, Love' it read underneath. The handwriting was messy and inconsistent. It was cracked like its neighbor, likely written at the same time. Perhaps it was a response.

Youngjae stared at the mural, using his phone as a flashlight to illuminate the otherwise dark alley. The moon offered no light to help him see, covered by clouds that had not been there the day before. The air was still hot, but he found himself able to breath in it. It was silent around him, too late in the night for cars to be passing by often. There was the occasional rumble, though, the sound of an engine groaning and tires rolling over uneven pavement. Headlights would flood the alley momentarily, bathing it's most shallow edges in white light, but said light could never quite reach where he was standing.

The water from the puddles licked at the edges of his shoes as he stepped forward to run his fingers over the cracked graffiti. It was rough under his wandering fingers like the brick underneath, and he took a moment just to stare as his fingers idly wandered over part of the surface. It smelled of rain, as heavy of a scent as the humidity that hung in the air. The world felt so calm, in those moments.

Thunder cracked overhead, and Youngjae's eyes drew up toward those dark clouds and the rain began to fall again. It was only a couple drops that hit him. A lightning bolt flashed, and he counted the seconds until thunder rumbled again. It was brief, the storm was close.

He took one last look at the mural before he stepped out to the mouth of the alley. The road was empty except for one woman, who ran with a newspaper over her head as if the rain would pick up at any second. She was probably right. Youngjae took a deep breath and turned his face toward the cool drizzle for just a moment before he stepped out of the mouth of the alley. Within a couple steps he had brought himself inside his building.

Rain could be heard pattering against the door of the building as he stepped into the narrow hall, filled only with a staircase and two doors. It seemed to get harder as the moments went by, and he stood for a moment to look out the small window to watch it. It was too dark to see much, but underneath the streetlights the quickly falling drops were visible. The hallway was wet with puddles, drenched by wet footprints that lead up the stairs or to the apartment door on his right. The floor creaked as he turned to go up the stairs

Youngjae trudged up those old, creaky steps to the third floor. Puddles lead him to his own door, but carried on further to the two floors above. Faintly, he could hear the downstairs door open once more, and footsteps began to follow him up the stairs. The doorknob was cool like the hall, but warm air wafted from inside the apartment, which he was quick to step into.

His brother,  Younggeun , was out of sight, but Youngjae could hear his deep voice from his room, likely speaking to his girlfriend over the phone. His father and mother both sat on the couch, idly watching the television they had set up earlier in the day. "Is it raining much?" His mother asked as Youngjae pulled off his shoes.

"It just started up again." Warm weather had given way to thunderstorms and the cool rain pattered against the window pane. There were still some boxes left, piled up in the corners to be ignored until their contents were needed, more so in Youngjae's room than anywhere else.

Boxes filled with books and clothes went untouched as Youngjae went through his little room. It was cramped, especially when filled with his unpacked things. His walls were bare and boring — he had yet to unpack any posters or pictures, not yet ready to hang up the smiling faces of friends he might not see again. His bed was next to the window, taking up the whole wall on that side. His mother had put a small end table next to his bed that held the smile pile of books Youngjae had bothered unpacking. Next to that was his desk, where he sat to go browse the internet.

He scrolled through the websites he normally visited and tried not to feel the pangs of jealousy at seeing what his friends were up to in Seoul without him.

A knock sounded at his window, sudden and barely audible over the falling rain now crashing onto the fire escape. Youngjae jumped, closing his laptop and standing as thunder crashed once again overhead. He pulled his side table out of the way as quickly as he could before opening the window for Daehyun to climb in. He had that wide smile on his face that made his eyes crinkle up, even though he was soaked all the way through. Youngjae quickly shut the window behind him before any more water could pool on his floor.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

Daehyun shrugged. "I was bored, figured it was 'bout time I paid you a visit." He didn't seem to mind that he was dripping all over Youngjae's floor, nor the rain outside. "What, is now a bad time?"

"No, just..." Youngjae trailed off for a moment as lightning flashed from the other side of the window. "It's raining."

"It wasn't when I left. It's not my fault you live crazy far from me."

"Where do you live?" Youngjae asked in confusion. After a second of chewing his lip, looking at the puddle on the floor, he added, "Do you want a towel?"

Daehyun wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, thanks." Youngjae turned to get him one and Daehyun followed after. "Do you know the park a couple blocks from here?" He asked. Youngjae shook his head. "Okay, where the fire station is?" Youngjae shook his head again. Daehyun started chewing his lip. "Do you know that thing Zelo wrote telling the cops to fuck off?"

"Yeah." Youngjae lead him into the bathroom, grabbing one of the clean towels from the linen closet, and then another after he looked at Daehyun. He tossed them both over to him, before leading them back toward his room.

"If you turn left, I live like two blocks past that. So not super far, but far enough that the rain got me."

Before he could reply, his mother's voice filled the small hall. "Youngjae, is someone with you?"

"Yeah, my friend's over," he answered. He tried to ignore the pleased look Daehyun was giving him at the mention of the word 'friend'. "He came in with me, remember?" He lied.

"Oh, that's right," his mother replied.

Daehyun finally thought to pull off his shoes once they got back into Youngjae's room. "We've only known each other four days and we're already best friends then, boo?" Daehyun teased. He threw one of the towels over his head as if that would make his hair dry and used to other to dry the flecks of water on the tan skin of his arms.

"I don't remember saying 'best'," Youngjae replied. "We're barely even friends." He sat down on his bed and tried not to focus on Daehyun's tan, tan skin against the white of the towel. Daehyun's pleased cackle of a laugh filled the roomy. Once he had dabbed himself as dry as he could, he folded it and put it on Youngjae's desk chair and sat on top of that.

"Oh, that stings, boo." Daehyun teased. "Why are you always so cold to me?" 

"I thought we agreed on 'babe'," was Youngjae's answer.

"Right," Daehyun laughed, more melodious and shorter than before. "Sorry, I'll make sure to get it right, boo." Daehyun seemed proud of himself with that, and sent Youngjae a wink that was just as infuriating as his smirk. Youngjae only rolled his eyes in response. There was a blank pause between them, the silence filled by cracks of thunder and the rain pounding against the window pane. "So, my birthday's like three days from now." Daehyun's voice suddenly cracked the silence with its honey-like smoothness. Youngjae gulped — his mouth dry. "The 28th," Daehyun specified. He played with his fingers for a moment before he continued, staring out the window instead of meeting Youngjae's gaze. "My friend Hanbyul's got a gig then, in the old theater down by the park. 'Said I could bring the boys and anyone else I wanted for free. Wanna come?"

Youngjae chewed his lip for just a moment. "Sure. What type of music?" 

"He's in some punk band now, I haven't heard them play yet. 'Can't really say if it'll be any good or not. He switches bands like every two months, so if they suck then he'll be gone before it matters." He paused to play with his fingers again. After a moment, he straightened up his posture and retook that cocky attitude Youngjae was already so used to. "Gimme your number. I'll text you all the details and shit." 

"Toss me your phone." Daehyun unlocked his phone and tossed it, but it fell to the bed rather than Youngjae catching it. He typed his number into a new contact page before tossing it back to Daehyun.

"Aw, you didn't put a heart next to your name," Daehyun said in mock disappointment. "I'm hurt, babe. I really am."

“I’m straight,” Youngjae lied. Daehyun gave him an amused look, and Youngjae shot back a glare, but it was not long before both broke into a fit of laughter.

“Like hell either of us are straight,” Daehyun laughed, “if you’re going to lie, pick something believable.”

“At least I said it with a straight face,” Youngjae insisted.

“Yeah, it was the only straight thing about you,” Daehyun giggled. “There’s no escape now, babe. You have to admit you’re into me.”

"You're not my type," Youngjae lied.

Daehyun scoffed, "excuse you, I'm everyone's type." Youngjae snickered, which made Daehyun chuckle along too.

Before either could say anything more, Youngjae's door opened. A face similar to his appeared in the doorway.  Younggeun hadn't even bothered to knock, a cell phone pressed to his ear. "Hey, Youngjae, back me up on something real quick. Oh, shit, didn't realize you had someone over."

"What is it?" Youngjae asked, an annoyed look on his face.

"Taking the bus to Seoul would be faster than the train, right? Sojin keeps saying the train is quicker." 

"The bus is quicker," Daehyun answered before Youngjae could, "and it's cheaper too."  Younggeun proudly relayed that information over the phone, about to say goodbye when Youngjae stopped him.

"Wait, your turn. Tell him he's not my type," Youngjae said, nodding towards Daehyun.

His brother looked Daehyun up and down for a second, and Daehyun just chuckled at the childishness. "I have no clue what you're talking about, Youngjae. He's pretty much exactly your type. He looks like all your previous boyfriends combined."

"Hey!" Youngjae whined, but it was drowned out by Daehyun's cheering. "You were supposed to lie!" 

The door shut before Youngjae could throw something at him, and Daehyun spent a good two minutes cackling at Youngjae's expression. "See, there's no use lyin' 'bout it," Daehyun teased. Youngjae threw a pillow at him. "Try and fight it all you want, I bet you're in love with me already," he cackled as he flailed his hands in a miserably failed attempt to escape the pillow.

"I will never, ever fall in love with you." Youngjae’s tone was childish and light, a pleased smile on his face at Daehyun's pout.

"Why are you always so mean?" Daehyun whined. Lightening lit the sky once again and thunder cracked behind them. Daehyun finally pulled the towel off the top of his head and instead wrapped it around his middle. His question was not answered.

"Are you cold?" Youngjae asked after a long silence.

"Only because you've frozen my heart," Daehyun teased. After a second, he shifted awkwardly. His face was a little pink. "No, I'm good. It's still crazy hot even if it's raining, right?" Youngjae nodded and the two went silent again. It was a couple moments before Daehyun spoke again. "So you'll come, right?" His voice carried its normal cocky edge but he was playing with his fingers again.

"Come to what?" Youngjae asked.

"The gig." Daehyun reminded him. His face had fallen a little. "For my birthday, remember?"

"I guess," He was met with a nonchalant shrug. He tried to fight off the impending frown at Youngjae's supposed lack of interest. "It's not really my type of music though."

"Oh." Daehyun licked his lips. He paused looking around the room as if he was searching for something to say. "Well, like, you mostly go to hang out with people, not for the music, you know?" There was another awkward pause, like the many others that filled the conversation. Youngjae almost tried to speak, but Daehyun beat him to it. "What type of music do you like, then?"

"R&B, I guess some pop and hip hop." 

"Same," Daehyun agreed. "Really, I think I like anything I can sing along to. So, not really hip hop most of the time, but I don't mind it. Yongguk and Zelo are nto it so whenever I go to the parlor it's what I end up listening to. I like hanging out in there and watching him give tattoos."

“Do you have any tattoos?" Youngjae asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Not yet. I'm gonna get one some day but I'm still trying to figure out what I'd want it to look like. Back when I still wrote a lot graffiti, I'd put sayings I liked up on the walls to test them out and see if I liked them. Most of the things you find written in black are mine, I think." 

"Not the stuff on this building though, right?"

"No, all the stuff on this building is pretty old," Daehyun answered. "'Think one of my brothers once mentioned this used to be a hippie house, you know? Like a bunch of hippies used to live here back in the seventies and eighties. They pretty much covered the place in graffiti and outta respect we don't write over it. It's like being polite or some shit."

"Right," Youngjae nodded and shifted around on the bed a bit. He wasn't sure if he was relieved or not. "Do you still 'write' a lot?"

"Not really," Daehyun said, "I kind of got bored of it once I got outta high school. I do it with the boys sometimes to make sure I keep king status, but otherwise I'm kind of done." He was met with a look of confusion. "You got a piece of paper I could borrow?"

"Yeah, um," Youngjae stood, pulling out one of the few notebooks he had unpacked and digging through the pile of stationary scattered on the floor to find a pencil that was still sharp. "Here." Their hands almost brushed when he passed it to Daehyun, just barely missing. Youngjae sat on the floor next to Daehyun's chair, and after a second Daehyun slid down to sit next to him on the floor too. He paused to grab the towel and sit on it again since he was still pretty wet.

"Sorry, I'm still dripping all over your floor," he chuckled.

"It's fine," Youngjae gave a small smile back. Daehyun gulped and looked at the paper.

Daehyun scribbled on the paper, eventually turning the page to face Youngjae. He had drawn a highly stylized word that Youngjae eventually made out to be 'Daemchu'. It was curly and each letter did not seem to fit with the others. The 'D' was much larger than the other letters, the 'ae' was squished together so that it almost looked like 'oe', the 'm' turned to three arrows, two of which went left or right to underline the word and the third just stopped after going down a millimeter, and unlike the rest of the romanized letters, 'chu' was written as '추'. Youngjae spent a while staring at the odd lettering before Daehyun spoke. "This is my tag. If you ever go on the metro and take the two or three line, you'll find it inside most of the cars. Most of the buses have it too. Once I got it enough places, people started calling me a 'king'." He passed the notebook back to Youngjae, who ran his fingers over the lettering. "I only did it 'cause it was family tradition though."

"Really?"

“Yeah, my oldest brother started it. 'Made a bunch of friends on the scene when he got into high school, so he started to go with them and ended up tagging shit too. He got kinda addicted to it and next thing we know he has his tag on every train car on the 1 and 2 lines. Here, it looks like this." Daehyun took the notebook again and started drawing again. This time it took longer, and he erased it a couple times. "Okay, it's not perfect, but this is basically it."

He passed the notebook to Youngjae. Below Daehyun's tag was another, more rigid than Daehyun's, with very sharp, angled edges and the occasional arrow. "I can't read it."

"Could you read mine?" Daehyun asked with a surprised tone.

"It said 'Daemchu', right?"

"You're literally the first person that could read it on the first try. His is 'EveryDae', with an 'e' not a 'y'. I think he said he was gonna tag a new thing every day and that's why he picked that one. So, after a while he had it all over the place. You don't find it as much now since a lot of it got buffed, but he'd even scribe it into windows and shit. When people started putting crowns on his tag, he took my other brother out to go add it to all his tags, and while they were at it, he started to tag shit too."

"What's his tag?"

"I can't draw it for shit," Daehyun laughed, "It's supposed to say 'Daem it' but I still can't read it, and I've never met anyone that could. It just looks like a bunch of squiggles. He got most of the 2 line going with our oldest brother though, then when I turned like thirteen they started taking me out with them to help tag shit. I started finding crowns on my tag by the time I was fifteen, and I've been trying to keep my tag on everything ever since. My brothers pretty much gave up once they got real jobs though; they both had quit before I turned sixteen."

"Did you do murals like Zelo does?" Youngjae shifted around a bit before he took the notebook back to stare at the two tags written on the page. Daehyun shifted too, then, leaning back on his palms so he was a bit behind the hunched over Youngjae. Youngjae ran his fingers over Daehyun's tag once more, tracing over each line slowly and with care not to smudge it.

"A couple, yeah," Daehyun admitted, "I never really got good at it though, and it was frustrating, so I quit. Plus, back then the cops and I didn't have the understanding we do now, so they kept giving me shit and bringing me down to the station whenever they caught me. It was fucking obnoxious, so I liked getting a quick tag done and bouncing before they showed up instead."

"I thought you said they don't come around here."

"They don't anymore," Daehyun replied, "this neighborhood wasn't always so clean; we used to be part of the strip. The cops kept coming 'round until a couple years after everything was cleaned up. 'Think they pretty much stopped showing up when they realized they were down on arrests. Anyway, my brothers and I tried to keep our mom from knowing, you know? Didn't want her to worry 'bout me getting roughed up by the cops so much. But both of them work pretty long hours, so I'd always have to sit in the station 'til one could pick me up. 'Didn't really seem worth it just to put some paint on a wall."

"How many times were you arrested?" Youngjae asked. He scrunched up his nose.

"Never. They knew I was popular with the boys, so I guess they thought if they brought me in to sit there and be bored outta my mind enough times, I'd get everyone to quit. They wouldn't arrest me for shit, though, 'knew I was friends with Zelo and all. 'Promised his dad I'd make sure he stayed outta trouble if he didn't give me too much shit. They also probably thought they'd get into a real fight with us if they tried to. 'Didn't want us to turn into North Burrow so might as well keep the local gang from freaking out, right?"

"Were they that worried about you guys?".

"They thought we were part of the wolf pack. And the wolf pack has been causing a lot of shit since they started up in the nineties. People leave and join but they stay assholes,” Daehyun said, “we're still trying to to get it through their thick skulls that they can't come 'round here anymore. You might wanna tell your family to stay in at night while we're at it. Sometimes things get a bit messy."

Youngjae bit his lip and nodded. "How much longer will it take?”

"No more than a week, hopefully. I talked to their shit leader, he said he's got the respect for me to reign the others in." He shrugged, and after a second reached for the notebook in Youngjae's hands. "Gimme."

"Why?"

"You're walls are boring. I'm gonna draw you something," Daehyun insisted. He opened and closed the hand of his stretched out arm a couple times before settling with his hand open.

Youngjae passed him the notebook. "I have posters. I just haven't put them up."

"Still," Daehyun did not finish his sentence, instead flipping the page and drawing quickly. Youngjae tried to peek over his shoulder, only for Daehyun to move away when he neared. "Don't look! Where's the fun if you look while I'm drawing it," he looked up briefly to ask. Their faces were too close, only about three inches apart. Daehyun dropped his gaze back to the notebook. 

Youngjae stood up. "I'll find sticky tack to hang it up with," he said as he went to dig through the pile of boxes, eventually finding the one marked 'posters'. There he found what he was looking for, and with Daehyun still focused on drawing, Youngjae decided to hang a couple of his old posters up.

The rain had slowed enough and the crashes of thunder faded into nothing as the storm outside lessened into little more than a drizzle once more. For once it was Youngjae that broke the silence, "better?" He motioned to the mostly covered walls.

Daehyun looked around, nodding his head. "Better. Wait two more seconds. I'm almost done." Youngjae nodded, and went to sit by Daehyun's side. "I got a little carried away, I haven't drawn in awhile," he said as he passed the notebook to Youngjae.

The first picture was just a larger scale version of Daehyun's tag, such that it took up the full page. Youngjae did not look at it for long before he flipped the page and found a cartoon. The first two panels were of a dog playing with a group of other dogs. In the next, a cat passed by, which caught the dog's attention. On the page after, the dog was chasing after the cat, tripping over itself, but still running after the frightened feline. On the final page, the dog had caught the cat and after close ups of each of the animals' faces, the dog licked the cat's face. "Poor cat," Youngjae mumbled.

"Why would you feel bad for the cat?"

"The dog slobbered all over him."

"Yeah, but the dog was just trying to be his friend." Daehyun defended. "Whatever it's just a comic." He was pouting a little.

"It's cute though." Youngjae said. He flipped to the next page and found and imitation of the sunflower mural, although it wasn't as skillfully done as Zelo's. The petals were uneven and some of the lines were so thick it made it seem as though they were wilting. The animals looked too happy, and not nearly as broken as they seemed in the actual mural.

"Sorry, I just kind of wanted to try," Daehyun said, "I think I messed up though, everything looks so broken."

"I like it," Youngjae replied, "but Zelo's is better."

Daehyun chuckled a little. "I won't even pretend to be upset about that. The kid's got some serious talent. I'm letting him redo one of my old murals because I know he'll do it better." Youngjae nodded and went to flip the page. "Wait!" Daehyun cried, his hand suddenly coming to stop the page from moving. "Just a warning, I kind of ran out of ideas, so I decided to draw what I saw. Sorry if it's bad."

"I'm sure it's fine," Youngjae said, "the others were really good."

Daehyun retracted his hand and watched Youngjae's face as he flipped the page. It was a drawing of the side profile of a boy with high cheekbones and big eyes. His hair was puffy and the bangs nearly reached his eyes. Those wide eyes had a sparkle and detail that Youngjae wasn't expecting. He had a beanie covering the back of his hair and puffy lips that were drawn in great detail, pulled into a slight pout as he focused on whatever he was doing. "Do you like it?" Daehyun asked in the quietest voice Youngjae had ever heard from him.

"Is this me?"

"Yeah, I was kind of running out of ideas, so I just drew what I saw. The rest of your room is boring, so that left you." His words came much quicker than his usual slow, drawled pace. "Do you like it?" Daehyun asked again.

Youngjae stared at the picture for a couple seconds, his face turning a slight pink. "The rain stopped," he said after a long pause.

"What?"

"It's not raining. You should go before it starts again," Youngjae reiterated.

"Oh." Daehyun stood to peak out the window. "Yeah, I guess I should go." He paused as his eyes wandered back to Youngjae, who had gone back to staring at the drawing. "I'll see you at the gig, then?"

"Sure. Remember to text me the details."

"Will do," Daehyun promised as he pulled on his shoes. He walked to the window then, as if not aware he could just go out the door. "See you around."

"Bye," Youngjae's answer came only a handful of seconds before the window was shut one more. 

He sat on the floor for a while. His fingers traced briefly over the line of his chin but retracted in fear of smudging it. It was almost too calm and too slow when he stood. His eyes stayed glued to the page as he exited his room and crossed the hall to his brother's. The rumbling voice had long since ceased and when Youngjae entered the room, he found him unpacking. Youngjae did not say anything as flopped face down on his bed, the notebook clutched tight to his chest.

"Are you okay?"  Younggeun asked.

"No," Youngjae mumbled. A second later, he rolled over and stared at the notebook again.  Younggeun came over to pull the notebook away, despite his brother's protests, and look at the drawing.

"Did that friend of yours draw this?"

"Yeah."

"He did a really good job," Younggeun said as he dropped the notebook back on Youngjae's chest. "Why are you upset?"

"I'm not upset," Youngjae defended.

"You're upset. But, why? He drew a pretty picture of you."

"Shut up. I want to be alone." Youngjae grumbled. He got what he wanted then — his brother stopped speaking and instead went back to unpacking while Youngjae stared at the drawing. Somehow he found it comforting just to have someone else there while he was busy being by himself.


	4. Chapter 4

Careful fingers pulled the pot away to reveal a red planet against the black background. It was taking a great deal of time, but as the hours passed Zelo was able to cover more and more of the wall with space. This planet was the last step and so Zelo dropped his spray cans and pulled down his mask. He took the time to observe the mural from atop his ladder.

A black sky covered the first two stories of the four story building. Blue-to-white waves covered the empty spots like the arms of a spiral galaxy. White flecks of paint covered planet-less spaces— far-away stars. At the center of the blue lines was a small bulge of white meant to be the center of the galaxy. His eyes darted to the sketch of the mural in his notebook, and then rifled through the pages to compare it to the references he had used. It was a little too orderly, a little too predictable to be real, but it looked nice and that was what mattered to him.

Several planets of varying sizes and colors stood amongst the backdrop. In the corner was a small, tan one with what seemed to be a heart in its lower half. They had specifically requested Pluto when they asked him to paint this. He had not been able to use his usual method for it, so he worried it was not as pretty as the others— bright, warm colors against the cool, dark void. The others were large, some with rings or small moons, some close together, and a couple as far as he could get them in the space of the wall. The largest one he had used the bottom of a box to stencil, and its diameter had to be about four feet or so. Others were smaller. He had used pots and pans that Daehyun had given him under the pretense that his family didn't use them, so if they were covered in the highly flammable paint it would not be a problem.

He had needed help holding the cardboard in place when he painted the large planet, a monstrous beauty of purples and reds. He had called out expecting a group of teenage girls, or perhaps a young couple, as those often seemed to be his lurking onlookers. Instead, he found a group of three cops, and would have worried he'd get in trouble if not for who is father was. Everyone in his precinct would recognize him, and given that the captain of their district had a soft spot for his dad, they'd probably just give him a warning. Or at least, that's what he thought. They only looked at him and what he was doing, and then left him there. A couple minutes later, a group of girls came by and told him some police officers had directed them his way. He recognized one from his class, and they spoke to each other about the grades they had gotten and the teachers they disliked. He passed out gloves and then covered the massive area of the cardboard circle and the spots around it in black while they held it in place. They stood to watch him for a while, some chatted with him as he worked, but that was days ago. Most of the time, he was alone. Maybe that was better. He didn't know.

Now the mural was finished, unless he wanted to get higher— unless he wanted to stretch it out over the entirety of the building. Usually, he would. When he started, he would only paint what he could reach, but recently he had started to take up entire walls with his pieces. Zelo thought to this time too, rolled the idea around his brain like putty on his palm, but no, it was too hard to hold the pots and pans up that high. Another large planet would be in order, too, to keep the space from looking odd, but no one would be able to help him with that.

He didn't want to be done yet, but it seemed that he was. He searched for any error he had made, any wave or small line that differed from the sketch he had in front of him.

"Shit." His eyes focused on a section of the mural where the orange had seeped out of the ring it was supposed to be in. If he looked away, he might lose the spot, but his cans were now laying on top of his bag. "Anyone around?" He called out. Normally there was. He could count the passage of time in cars, dog-walkers, and packs of roving teenagers so satisfied with the freedom summer had brought them.

"What color?" A somewhat familiar voice answered, their slow footsteps moving into the alley. 

"Black." His hand reached down while he kept focus on the spot, and tried not to be impatient as whoever it was rifled around with the cans. With the spray can finally in his hand, he was quick to cover the dripped color and drop the can back down. Maybe then he could be satisfied. "Not gonna whine about the law this time, huh, Youngjae?" Zelo teased.

"I could but you'd just spout more bullshit," Youngjae teased back. He stood at the bottom of the ladder, his eyes not fixed on Zelo, but instead on the mural he had painted.

Zelo turned on the ladder then and sat on one of the steps. "I can spout bullshit whether or not you whine at me," he answered with a small smile, "and is it really bullshit, or are you refusing to acknowledge the truth that sometimes the things we deem bad or that the government makes illegal are not necessarily evil or even particularly destructive? This mural will make the kids in that building happy, so what's wrong with it?"

"Nothing," Youngjae replied, but that teasing smile was still there. Zelo was about to speak but Youngjae cut him off. "You just sound like every other fake-deep kid."

"Maybe, but if a lot of people are saying the same thing, wouldn't that mean there's some valid point bein' made? If a whole bunch of people get together and say 'hey this thing is wrong with society' shouldn't that mean it's actually wrong?"

"Lots of people say graffiti is something wrong with society." Youngjae's smile turned wry and proud.

Zelo opened his mouth to object but then closed it. This happened several more times before he just stared at Youngjae with frustration. "I don't have an answer to that," he admitted.

"I win," Youngjae grinned. "At least you don't go whining about weed."

Zelo thinned his lips. "I mean alcohol and tobacco are legal drugs and both are not only more addictive than weed, the side effects are also less destructive and—"

"Oh my god, don't start," Youngjae whined.

"You brought it up!" Zelo accused, though he was laughing. "How does it look?" He motioned back to the wall. "A group of little kids ran up to me like two weeks ago and asked me to paint it, so I wanna make sure it looks good."

"It looks kind of like one of those street paintings."

"The ones they do downtown? Or I guess, more in Old Town than downtown, since they go after tourists." He looked back at the mural then and settled back on the ladder.

"Yeah, they made them in Seoul too." Youngjae confirmed.

"I was going for that. That's what the kids said they wanted," Zelo replied. His tone turned joking and lighthearted in an instant, but Youngjae was beginning to notice his smile never reached his eyes. "You know it’s my first commission and they paid me, so I gotta do a good job."

"What did they pay you?"

"Like three skittles and half of a kit-kat," Zelo laughed, "I swear the oldest one was like eight years old, I was impressed when they said they'd pay me for it. 'Thought maybe they'd stolen money from their moms' purses or some shit." Youngjae laughed along as well. Zelo gave one last inspecting look at the mural before he decided to climb down his ladder and start packing up. When he looked up, he found Youngjae staring at him. "What?"

"You're taller than I thought. Maybe it was the ladder?"

"Maybe," Zelo replied. "A bunch of people have said that when they saw me standing for the first time. It's convenient, I can reach higher up when I'm writing and get the piece to cover more of the wall."

"Still, I thought you were like Daehyun's height."

"He's pretty tall. Just not as tall as me," Zelo answered. He took down the ladder then, placing it on the cracked pavement of the dim alley they were standing in before he went to lean up against the blooming rose painted on the wall of the other building. "Do you like him?" Zelo asked.

"What? Who?"

"Daehyun. Do you like him?" Zelo asked. His eyes stayed focused on the mural, although he seemed to be aware of the mix of confusion and dismay that had crossed Youngjae's features. Cars drove by, people passed the alleyway with loud conversations briefly filling the space, but no answer came. Eventually, Zelo's turned his head to meet Youngjae's eyes, to observe his blushed cheeks and bit lip. "You do, right?"

"Why?"

"Why am I asking?" Zelo asked, and Youngjae nodded. "Because he likes you."

"What?" Youngjae asked again.

"He likes you," Zelo repeated. "I mean, I've never seen him complain so much about someone he wants to get with, but it seems like every time I see him, he's acting like some middle schooler with their first crush. He was here yesterday complaining that he thought he pissed you off or something. I mostly tuned him out."

"Why would I be mad at him?"

"Something about him coming over like two days ago. He drew you a picture or something? I don't remember."

"He thinks I'm mad about the drawing?" Youngjae asked.

"Yeah. ‘Doesn’t make much sense to me," Zelo replied, "anyway, do you like him?"

Youngjae hesitated. "No, he's not my type. I have to go." The words were uttered in such quick succession that there could be no doubt he was trying to escape.

"Bye," Zelo raised his eyebrows, and a second later Youngjae was gone. "God, they both have it bad already." The heat had returned after the thunderstorms of the days prior, and while accustomed to the high temperatures that summer brought, he had no urge to be active. Zelo sunk against the wall and dragged his bag toward him with his foot. He opened it to rifle through, a sigh leaving his lips at the lack of food inside.

He fished his phone out of his pocket, shot off a text asking for food, and then he was back to staring at the wall. Cars rolled by like they always did. Women passed by as they chatted about their days. A group of girls in his class passed, so he waved at them, and in return they giggled and waved back. He didn't know how long he was sitting there before Daehyun's deep drawling voice filled that silence drowning him. "You know you won't be able to do this when your school starts up again, right?" A sandwich was tossed on his stomach.

"I texted Minah, not you." Zelo grumbled.

"She and her friend Hyeri are having a girls' day," Daehyun replied, "I was helping Captain move boxes and all so she told me to bring it to you." He sat next to Zelo. "You wanna talk about it?"

"I wanna talk about literally anything else. Captain's leg is giving him trouble then?"

"Like always. Anytime there's a storm he all but loses the ability to move. Mom and I set him up downstairs when the wind started picking up. She keeps arguin’ with him about how he should just move into the back room, but of course he’s not havin’ it. ‘Doesn’t wanna leave Minah alone up there or somethin’." He gave a long sigh as his eyes landed on Zelo, who in turn kept his eyes fixed on the mural. "You know we're here for you, right?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Junhong—"

"Daehyun, don't." Zelo cut him off. "I don't want to talk about it." It went silent as Zelo took a bite from his sandwich and looked back to the mural. Once he was half through he looked over at Daehyun only to find him still watching. "Come on, whine about work or something. You only have a couple weeks left at the firehouse, right? They probably have you on call every second of the day."

"I'm on call right now." Daehyun held up the pager that had been attached to his waist. "But, I'm stayin’ on until the EMT program starts, so it's not like they're freakin’ out about it. Besides, there are enough volunteers from your high school that it doesn't matter. 'Guess they're lookin' to ditch or somethin' once you all get back to school." Another car rolled by, the sound of its tires over the pavement filling their brief silence. "There isn't much to say 'bout work anymore. 'Guess I'm feelin' a bit nostalgic since I'm'a' be gone pretty soon."

"Then talk about your brothers gettin' on your nerves or about the wolf pack bein' asses. Hell, whine about Youngjae, at least it's somethin' good you got goin' on."

"You want me to whine when you got it worse? When—"

"I don't want to talk about her!" Zelo's voice was loud suddenly, and then the silence hit them again. Once his sandwich was gone and angry munching could no longer be used as a distraction, he spoke again. "He was here not too long ago. Youngjae, I mean."

"Cool," Daehyun tried to sound nonchalant, and for the hell of it Zelo waited for him to crack. One speeding car and a dog barking later, Daehyun's voice came back in the most unsure tone Zelo had heard from him in a long time. "Did he say anything about me? Is he mad about that picture?" Before Zelo could answer, Daehyun's grumbles to himself filled the alley. "'Didn't think it was too bad, either. 'Spent the longest time on it an' all."

"He said he wasn't mad."

"Did you ask him about it?" Daehyun accused.

"Yeah." Zelo shrugged as if being so blunt was a normal thing to do. "Well, more like I asked if he liked you and it came up from there."

"You did what?!" Daehyun shouted, punching Zelo in the arm. "You're gonna ruin me, kid. You're gonna ruin me. All those years working my game up and I bet you made me sound like some little kid with his first crush."

"So you've got a crush on him?" Zelo teased. 

"That's not what I meant," Daehyun groaned. "You can't just go 'round asking people I'm tryin' to sleep with if they like me. You'll ruin my game." There was a long pause, two cars and an old lady with too many groceries. Neither offered to help her. "So what did he say?" Daehyun asked, picking at the dirt beneath his fingernails. His eyes flickered up to meet Zelo's.

"He said you aren't his type." Zelo answered with a wry smile. Daehyun snorted. "You keep sayin' you just wanna hook up with him, but I'm not so sure. I think you caught something."

"What do you mean?" 

"He's only been here, what, a week? And—"

"Six days." Daehyun cut him off.

"Jesus, are you counting or something?" Zelo laughed. "Fine, six days, whatever. He's been here six days and you're already willin' to ask about him. I've seen you when you wanna sleep with someone, Daehyun. You don't ask about what they said to other people, not unless someone comes and tells you they think you're bein' creepy." The wind blew suddenly, causing empty cans of energy drinks and beer to go rolling down the alley with little clinks. "The wind's blowin’, things are gonna be changing soon." The words came without thought.

"What?"

"Dunno," Zelo shrugged, "Mom always used to say that. 'Usually said it meant things were changin' for the better. Last time she said it was right before—" Zelo cut himself off. He let out a loud exhale. "Yeah. The wind is blowing, things are gonna get better soon." When he looked at Daehyun, the other gave him a half smile. "Don't go lookin' at me like that," Zelo whined.

"That's the most optimistic thing I've heard from you in a—" Daehyun pager started buzzing. "Shit."

"Go on. I'm fine, someone else isn't." He nodded down the alley toward the firehouse. 

"Yeah, yeah." Daehyun stood and took a second to adjust his clothes. "By the way, Yoongi told me he got you a thing of beer last night. I better not hear shit like that again, yeah? You can't go drinking real shit away, 'specially not when you're underage."

"You sound like a cop," Zelo whined. "What are you gonna do 'bout it, huh? Tell my dad on me?"

"Worse," Daehyun held something truly evil in his eyes. "I'll tell Yongguk."

"You dick! You know he’ll lecture me for like twelve hours! Get back here!" Zelo shouted, but Daehyun was already running off toward the fire station. He settled back against the wall and watched his friend's retreating figure until it was gone. Then he was tilting his head back, eyes closed and arms limp at his side. Two speeding cars, four slow ones, two dogs, a pack of children discussing stickers, and a loudly arguing couple later, someone kicked his shoe.

In front of him stood Youngjae, a paper bag in one arm and a second pair of legs behind him, their owner obscured by Youngjae's body. "What's up?" Zelo asked.

"This guy wanted to meet you." Youngjae answered. He looked to his side, and then spun to whoever was standing behind him to glare. Zelo stood as Youngjae turned, and at his full height he towered over the both of them.

"Well, here I am."

"Zelo, this is Jongup. Jongup, this is Zelo." Youngjae introduced as he waved his hand between them. "Bye." The word was quick and unexpected, and then Youngjae was out of the alley before either could respond.

"He, um, said he had an appointment or something," Jongup mumbled. He was short, but muscular. His skin was tanned and he certainly seemed like someone that could look imposing, despite his height. Instead he looked friendly and a bit nervous.

"Nah, he’s just afraid that if he stays I’ll bring up Daehyun again. ‘Doesn’t wanna admit what’s goin’ on there yet. Are you the wolf pup?" Zelo's words were even slower than his normal drawl, filled with hesitance.

"Yeah, I guess," Jongup scratched at the back of his head. "Is this the part where you deck me? Daehyun’s already got me once this week. Kind’a’ not up for repeatin’ that, so if you’re gonna tell me to scram I’ll go."

“Why would I deck you? Apparently you're my biggest fan." He teased, and found himself pleased with the red that overtook Jongup's cheek and neck. "How old are you? I feel like I've seen you around school or something."

"Seventeen, so if you’re thinkin’ of someone you saw down at the college, it’s not me. Although, you look pretty familiar too, I guess. Did you go to North Shore High?"

"I still go there; I'm only sixteen." 

“Oh, shit, you’re so tall I just kind’a’ assumed, you know?”

“Story of my life.” There was a pause between them. "So you like my pieces, right? I heard you spend a lot of time on the stoop outside Stigma, 'cross from the big one I did there."

"It's one of my favorites." Jongup answered sheepishly. "I just kind of, I don't know,  _ feel it _ . I dunno if that makes sense."

"It makes sense to me." One car passed, but the silence to be stifling. "If you don't mind then, I gotta question. What would you name that one?"

Jongup bit his lip and tilted his head up toward the sky. "It's where the broken things gather, right?" Jongup's nervousness dissipated with the smile that covered Zelo's face. "I'm gonna take that as me having the correct answer? I got a question too."

"Shoot." Zelo was still smiling.

"There was that mural down toward the beach, right? It was like May or somethin’ and you painted a little stem and slowly it grew into that big flower. I thought you'd leave it like that, why'd you paint it black?" Jongup asked, hesitance in his tone. "Not to say it wasn't awesome, I liked it and all. I'm just curious why you didn't at least leave it up for a little longer."

Zelo went silent for a long minute, before reaching into his bag and pulling out a black notebook. He flipped through the pages until he reached one with several flowers all bloomed side by side. "It was supposed to look like that when I finished. I was gonna have them bloom one by one and then when June hit and it was done I was just going to leave it. 'Figured maybe the cops would buff it out since it's street-side, but at least it would be something pretty for a little while, right? It made the pizza shop guy across the street happy. Apparently more people were comin’ to eat there so they could gawk at it. He used to bring me free slices whenever he caught me workin' on it."

"Why'd you paint it black instead?" Jongup asked. Silence overtook them, long and uncomfortable as Jongup looked at Zelo and Zelo kept his eyes focused on the drawing. Three cars passed, all in a row, and then Jongup spoke again. "Sorry, maybe I shouldn't have asked."

"Some bad shit went down. I kind’a’ took it out on the piece," Zelo said after one more car. "I don’t wanna talk about it.”

"I get it," Jongup answered, "is that why you've been making so much? I saw stuff from you last year but it seemed like you'd only do a new piece every couple months, but now its seems like there's something new every day."

"Yeah, pretty much,” Zelo replied, "if I'm doing this then I'm not thinking about it." He closed his black book then, putting it back in his bag before his eyes met with Jongup's. "So what about you then? I heard you're always out staring at my stuff. What's so special about it that it's worth getting clocked in the face for?" He motioned to Jongup's black eye.

"It's mostly just that broken things mural," he said hesitantly. He seemed to notice the space mural then, bearing Zelo's fresh tag in the corner. "Wow, this is a nice one. I've seen street artists do stuff like this on little canvases, but this... wow." 

"You didn't answer my question." Zelo said. "What, do you have some deep dark secret, then?"

"No." Jongup shook his head. "It's just better if I'm not home when my dad's there. Daehyun’s nothin’ compared to him."

"Ouch. Sorry, man." 

“Shit happens,” Jongup shrugged.

"But still, why here? Why not just go wandering 'round the strip or something? It's your neighborhood, you'd be less likely to get a black eye there." Again, Zelo's eyes trailed to the dark bruise.

"More likely," Jongup corrected, "the wolf pack doesn't really like me much. I yanked one of them off the girl that lives next to me once when he was goin' at her and suddenly I'm public enemy number one.”

“You know if you told Daehyun, he'd probably stop tryin’ kick you out. Right now, he thinks you're spyin’ for the wolf pack or some other paranoid shit like that."

"It's not worth it to try to get him to listen,” Jongup replied, “most of the guys still let me go free. Couple of them even saw Youngjae bringin’ me here, ‘didn’t say shit.”

“That might be because they’re all bein’ careful ‘round Youngjae right now. So long as Daehyun’s gotta thing for him, they’re gonna try to keep him away from all the fights and shit. ‘Don’t know if he’s used to it yet, you know? So if he’s not and he gets too involved, he might bail on all of us, and that’d wreck Daehyun.”

“So he likes Youngjae then?" Jongup asked.

"Yeah, he’s got it bad. I’m not super sure ‘bout Youngjae. He’s quiet and all that shit, so it’s not as easy to tell. I still think it’s gonna happen though."

"See, now, if I were spying that would really not be something you'd wanna tell me," Jongup teased. "What if I just go runnin' off to the wolf pack now tellin' them to go beat up Youngjae if they wanna hurt Daehyun?"

"I'd stop you," Zelo snorted.

"I'd like to see you try,." Jongup joked, and then he pretended to pivot and run off. Zelo grabbed him around the waist while the two laughed, and a mostly fake struggled ensued between the two. That is, until Zelo slipped on one of the beer cans that had rolled forward with the wind, and the two went crashing onto the cracked pavement of the alleyway. Soft groans interrupted any attempts at conversation briefly.

"You okay?" Zelo asked. He looked over to where Jongup had fallen and their eyes met. Within the second they were both laughing, which caused odd looks to be given by the passersby. 

Jongup was the first to sit up, although Zelo quickly followed. "I'm good. Not the hardest fall I've taken. You?"

"I hit my head on the way down." Zelo rubbed at the back of his head. "I'll survive though." It went silent for a bit, but neither looked away. The air was warm between them, but a slight breeze made the heat tolerable. "So, um, I was plannin' on heading down to the broken things mural today. I got some more animals to add to it, and I figure it's been long enough since I worked on it last. So, um, would you wanna come with? Daehyun's at work so he won't be givin’ you any trouble."

"Yeah, sure," Jongup was trying to sound nonchalant, but there was a small bounce in his step when he stood. He offered his hand down to Zelo to help him stand, and for a second they were too close. Both were quick to move away. "I mean, if you're sure it's okay with you. I wouldn't wanna get in the way or anything."

"No, it's nice having someone around when I'm working. I like getting a second opinion on stuff in my book before I bother putting it on the wall. Buffing out mistakes isn't so easy."

"Well, if you ever want someone to hang around while you’re painting, you can always count on me. I don't have much else better to do." There was a pause then, a moment— Zelo with his bag half on his shoulder and Jongup with his arms folded nervously over his stomach. Their eyes were locked together. Two cars passed, and one loud dog too, but Zelo barely heard them.

He gulped. "Thanks, man. I'll get your number at some point so I can text you where I am and all. Just a warning though, I might ask you to bring me food."

"That's not a problem. So, off we go?"


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the concert on Daehyun's 19th birthday
> 
> (Yes, this is a real update, Graffiti is officially back)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey remember a year ago when I said I'd update "soon". Yeah... Good times... But that's right, your eyes are not betraying you! This is actually chapter 5 of Graffiti, I am finally posting it, and since chapter 6 only needs a couple edits, you can expect to see that within the next two weeks!! Thank you all so much for waiting!!~
> 
> I would really, really appreciate it if people could drop a comment on this, say anything you liked, anything you didn't like, let me know if there was something you think I did well or something I did poorly. I LOVE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM so please please give me some~ I'm not sure I will be able to reply to all the comments I get anymore, I'm going to try to but my mental health has been pretty low lately.
> 
> Thank you for reading!~
> 
> [Tumblr](http://foxjae.tumblr.com) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/youngjaebunny)

The old theater stood almost out of place within the neighborhood. It was a ramshackle two story building with cacophonous music playing out of its back room, where they used to show films. By its side was a rare empty lot in a city filled to the brim where a bunch of teenagers had gathered to smoke and scream at one another because it was inevitably too hot to stay in the unventilated room and, certainly, smoking and screaming at one another were just things some teenagers had a tendency to do.

Daehyun stood amongst them. He had only come outside to look through the crowd to see if Youngjae was there, but he had stopped. Instead, he made eye contact with the wall.

Two massive eyes, similar to his own, bore into his soul from where they had been spray painted on the side of the theater — the same skin color and the same shape, but the eye bags were a little less round and the mole under his own eye was missing. ‘JUNG DAE HEE’ it read above the eyes, followed by ‘IS WATCHING YOU’ below, in the same bold script. Below that was a fancier script, a clear mark of the second artist on the piece, reading, ‘est. April 4th, 1984’. In the corner, two tags marked ownership over the piece, ‘Daem it’ and ‘Honey’. 

The eyes seemed to watch him as he moved and judged him as he stared back at them. His lips thinned and turned down. All at once he felt too small, too soft, and too young. Before it could strangle him, he went back into the smoky, hot room through the emergency exit they had propped open and ignored the high schoolers that had asked the theater owner if they could play before Hanbyul’s new band. They were never any good, just kids drunk off impossible dreams. Maybe Hanbyul was the same, never quite committed to the music nor the band, trying each genre on like a change of clothes and letting it rebrand who he was entirely each time while his perpetual identity crisis loomed over his shoulder like an overbearing parent.

The seats in the old theater, which likely never held more than a hundred at one time, had been ripped away, to leave empty, scratched black floors, though some old, beer-stained couches had been donated and shoved up against the walls, since populated by bags, drink bottles, and the occasional person on their phone. Junhong had been on the one closest to the door, but had disappeared five minutes before Daehyun stepped outside after getting some text or other. He would worry, but he knew neither of Junhong’s parents knew how to text, so it clearly wasn’t that. 

Since then Hani and Minah had taken their place, and Daehyun supposed the two were waiting for Hyeri before they’d join the crowd at the center of the room that was not quite dancing to the music, but somehow was enjoying its off-beat chords. He sat next to Hani, looking through the crowd carefully before fixing his eyes on the door.

“—and all, so just don’t make a big deal of it or tell her that I told you, okay?” Hani was saying. “Like, okay, yeah, you need to keep her away from the Strip and don’t let her text ‘im but don’t be obvious ‘bout it,” she nudged Daehyun with her shoulder to acknowledge him, but whatever they were talking about was too important to pause.

“Are you sure it wouldn’t be safer to send her to hang out with some of the Tigers instead? Hyeri and I are happy to help out, we’d love to be her friend, but we can’t exactly protect her if he goes out looking for her or something,” Minah said carefully.

“That’s what we got dumbo over here for, right, Dae?” Hani asked.

“Sure, yeah,” Daehyun didn’t take his eyes off the door, unsure of what they were talking about. “I can help LE out with stuff.”

“No, my cousin, Shiah,” Hani said, pulling on his arm until he was forced to look away from the door to make eye contact with her. He started playing with his fingers, but she didn’t seem to notice. “She finally ditched that ass of a Wolf boyfriend after he nearly raped her, only really got away because some neighbor kid pulled ‘im off and decked ‘im. ‘Been staying with our cousins in Daegu for about a month or so, but she’s back now and stayin’ with me.”

“We’ll keep an eye on her,” Daehyun promised. He looked back to the door the moment it seemed he could.

“What’s up with you, kid?” Hani asked. 

“Nothing,” Daehyun said a little too fast. He adjusted the way he was sitting so his legs were wide and his arms were over the back of the couch, and took a moment before he spoke again in his usual cocky drawl, “just lookin’ around. I forgot ‘bout that thing you and Daemyung made of Daehee, ‘always scares the shit outta me.”

“‘Don’t think Daehee ever forgave us for that,” Hani snorted. “Remember how red his face got, tryin’ not to yell ‘cause it would ruin his ‘image’ or whatever? ‘Swore steam was ‘bout to come out his ears or somethin’.” Minah giggled along but Daehyun barely made a sound.

“Daehyun, seriously, is everything alright?” Minah asked.

“Yeah, ‘was just worried ‘bout that new kid gettin’ lost on his way here. ‘Might end up face to face with Chansub again, and I’m not sure Jae’s been in a fight before, you know?” He was trying to sound nonchalant.

“Chansub wouldn’t pick a fight unless he knows the kid’s got some connection to you or Daemyung. He’s a wuss, remember?” Hani countered as she leaned back against the couch and against one of Daehyun’s outspread arms. 

“Not usually but they’ve all been pissy since I kicked ‘em out and with his Dad gettin’ canned and all I’m not sure now’s a good time for anyone to be ‘round him, you know? Last time his Dad got canned was when he beat the shit outta Yoongi, remember? I figure it’s better to keep Youngjae and any other non-fighters outta this,” replied Daehyun.

“Junhong’s been saying you love him,” Minah said.

“Junhong’s high off paint fumes or something — y’all know I’m not like that. It’s not even like— he’s not even my type. And I’m not like that. Also, we’re not supposed to call Junhong that. ‘Said he wanted to be Zelo like his tag for a bit.”

“I swear that kid doesn’t even know who he is anymore!” Hani whined. “‘changin’ his name, dyein’ his hair with some shitty ass box dye, runnin’ off on his old man like that, especially with, y’know… I’m just sayin’ they probably need each other right now and off he is bailin’ to sleep in alleys and Yongguk’s couch like he isn’t some little teenage kid.”

“Oh, let him be,” Minah replied. “He’s going through a hard time right now. There’s no harm in him trying to figure out who he is, even if it is with a box of hair d—”

“Holy shit,” Daehyun whispered, but it was enough to silence Minah.

She and Hani looked over to see what Daehyun was looking at only to find that  _ what _ to be a  _ who _ and that  _ who _ to be Youngjae with his previously black hair and the tips of his fingers dyed bright red, otherwise dressed in black with Zelo by his side. 

Youngjae stopped in his tracks and froze for half a second when he spotted Daehyun and the two girls staring him down, particularly Daehyun with his jaw dropped. He recovered before Zelo could notice, and nodded him over to one of the far couches, where the two sat and chatted. He looked over his shoulder once or twice, only to quickly look away when Daehyun was still staring at him.

“Does he normally stare at people he wants to bang like that?” Hani stage-whispered to Minah.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him stare at anything like that, besides maybe Suwoong?” Minah actually whispered back, just low enough that Daehyun missed what she had said.

“I think he’s caught somethin’,” Hani whispered back. Youngjae looked over his shoulder back at Daehyun, who gulped, lowered his eyes, and pulled his arms off the side of the couch to curl around his stomach. He missed the way Youngjae’s eyes locked on him the moment he looked away. “Yeah, he’s definitely caught something.”

Daehyun’s attention was drawn by an affectionate knock on the head, and he looked over to find Hyojin staring him down with a small smile. Behind her a couple of the Tigers had come into the theater as well, mingling in with the crowd and searching for their friends there. “Hey, ‘mind scootin’ over so I can sit with my girlfriend?” Hyojin asked.

Daehyun scooted over, not surprised at how Hani’s feet ended up in his lap because her legs had found their way over Hyojin’s. “I thought you said only you and Zico could make it,” he replied, nodding his head over to the mass of Tigers now in the crowd.

“Solji and Daehee decided they wanted the night to themselves,” Hyojin shrugged, “we dropped her off and then thought we might as well come over and wish you a happy birthday.”

“Thanks, but why was she with y’all? I thought they were both done with this shit now that they’re engaged and tryin’ to be real adults,” Daehyun asked. Without thinking too hard about it, his eyes trailed back over to Youngjae. Youngjae quickly turned away to look at Zelo. Daehyun became acutely aware that he had been watching before.

“‘Doesn’t mean they don’t wanna see old friends, does it?” Hyojin answered. “What’s so interestin’ over there? Jun—  what was it? Z-something? Zelo?” Minah and Hani agreed in a chorus that it was, but a second later Minah saw Hyeri and went bounding across the room to cling to her. “‘Shame ‘bout that kid. He’s got it too, doesn’t he?”

“He won’t tell anyone,” Hani replied softly. “We probably shouldn’t talk ‘bout it. Spreadin’ rumors when his life’s gone to shit and all.”

“Yeah, probably. You told ‘im he could call us if he needed somethin’, right?” Hyojin asked her. “Don’t matter if it’s money or some muscle or just a place to hang, we take care of our own, even if Daehee went and pretended this shit was split up just to try and impress my girl.”

“He landed her, didn’t he? Pretty sure the ring ‘round her finger shows it was more than just ‘try’,” Daehyun replied. “We’re still split, I ain’t handing the crown over, LE.”

Youngjae looked at him. Daehyun looked away. His face turned a little red as he watched the high school band packing up so Hanbyul’s could take the stage instead.

“Don’t mind him, ‘seems to have caught somethin’ or other for the red hair kid,” Hani whispered. After, she spoke again in a louder voice, so Daehyun could hear. “Yeah, I told ‘im the last time I could get Yongguk to drag him in. Poor kid’s gotta deal with wrecked hair on top of all the shit now because he used some shit box dye instead of lettin’ me change it.”

“I’m sure he’ll let you take over next time. And all that goes for you too, kid, even if you’re just as much of a stubborn dumbshit as Daehee,” Hyojin nudged his shoulder. “‘Heard you finally kicked the Wolves out. Solji said Daehee’s real proud and all, but don’t get in over your head, a’ight? Not sayin’ you aren’t tough, but this is some real-ass shit and y’all are more… I’m not sayin’ you aren’t tough, okay? You’re just art-types, you know? You’re not your brothers,” Hyojin said carefully.

“Thanks, LE, but we can handle it,” Daehyun said abruptly, pushing Hani’s legs off of him and standing. He went to join the crowd and chat up people in the crowd for a bit, but ended up with his eyes back on Youngjae, who was laughing to himself.

It was a sweet chuckle, with his cat-like eyes curled up in a winged line and his cheeks wide with a smile that seemed to hit him right in the gut. As Youngjae’s laugh faded, he noticed Daehyun’s staring, and they were able to hold eye contact for just a second before both gulped and looked away.

“You should just go talk to him,” said Jimin, almost as if he had appeared from thin air. Jungkook was beside him. Daehyun jumped and glared at the two, only to meet with confusion from the both. “We’ve been standing here with you for like two minutes, dude, did you seriously not even notice us?”

“Shut up,” Daehyun answered.

“If he’s that distractin’ to you, then you should go talk to him! Come on, you like him, don’t you?” Jungkook cajoled. Daehyun was just about tired of them. In the week since Youngjae had shown up in town, this had become the summary of all of their conversations. The two were like a Greek chorus, constantly trying to push along a plot he didn’t want to be a part of. They meant well, but intention rarely means anything at all.

“I don’t like him,” Daehyun replied sharply. “Just ‘cause I’m lookin’ at someone doesn’t mean I’m interested. I told you, I’m just lookin’ for a hookup.”

Jungkook’s lips turned into a thin line, but at least it was better than Jimin, who had a full on frown. “Dude, don’t be like this. All you’re ever on about is hook ups like that’s all you need or somethin’. You’re, like, supposed to fall in love and shit, there’s nothin’ wrong with wantin’ to date him,” Jimin said.

“Yeah! Even Daehee’s head over heels for that Tiger girl, right? No one’s gonna think less of you if you wanna be with him. Everyone needs love,” Jungkook eagerly agreed.

Daehyun adjusted his stance, legs wide, eyes narrowed, something distinctly frustrated in the way his eyebrows furrowed, and replied, “maybe y’all need to fall in love or some bullshit, but not me. Keep that shit off me, and stop beggin’ me to date someone.”

“We just want you to be happy,” Jungkook said in a quieter tone.

“I am happy! When you two aren’t on my ass about this bullshit, I’m fuckin’ euphoric! I don’t need to be in love to be happy, so just drop it,” Daehyun spat. 

They weren’t used to him being so easily upset. “Dude—” Jimin tried.

“Can y’all just go? I’d honestly rather go kick it with the fuckin’ Wolves then deal with the two of you playin’ matchmaker like this. Fuck off already.” Daehyun was both fully aware that he was being incredibly rude and fully incapable of stopping himself. He didn’t relax any, even when they turned and walked away.

Daehyun went to look back at Youngjae, only to find Minah in his way. “That was a bit harsh, Dae. They don’t know any better,” she said softly. “They mean well, even if they’re on the wrong track here. Although, you know the way you look at him is kind of…” She trailed off.

“I know,” he sighed. “I’m just fuckin’ stressed with this whole Wolf Pack thing. ‘Can’t believe the Tigers went off and told Daehee ‘bout it too.”

“Wouldn’t Daehee be happy with this? He was pissed when you told ‘em they had conditional passes to be ‘round here, right?” Minah replied.

“Yeah, but now he’s gonna be expectin’ me to be like… I don’t know. It doesn’t matter,” Daehyun replied, his tone having gone soft and frustrated.

Minah shifted from one foot to the other, just enough that he could stare at Youngjae over her shoulder. Youngjae dropped his eyes, with cheeks reddening to match his hair. Yongguk had joined he and Zelo’s conversation, and the three seemed quite serious in their discussion. Given the way Zelo had mostly quieted to listen to Yongguk, he assumed it was some bullshit philosophy debate.

“You’re doing it again,” she observed.

“What?”

“Staring at him.”

Youngjae looked up. Their eyes met. Daehyun looked away. “‘Can’t exactly blame me when he’s starin’ at me all the time too. Everytime I look over there he’s starin’. ‘Can’t blame me for bein’ interested in what’s goin’ on, can you?” Daehyun justified.

“You’re actin’ really weird, Dae,” she mumbled. She had lost her ever-present chipper tone in her worry, reaching over to rest a hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. His frustration had grown quieter, hiding in his throat and taking up the space where his words normally resided. “I’m not like this. This isn’t who I am; it’s just the weather or somethin’. He’s lookin’ at me again.”

“Why are you so nervous?” Minah replied.

Before he could answer that he wasn’t, a sudden blare of guitar shook them both out of the conversation. It was only a couple chords before the drums kicked in, then the bass, and then Hanbyul’s voice over the pumped up speakers blocked any and all attempts at conversation for several minutes.

Hyeri came with a giggle on her lips and a bounce in her step and begged the both of them to come dance with her because ‘thank god, finally, Hanbyul’s not in the shittiest poser band on the planet’, but Daehyun knew she was asking Minah more than she was asking him. Sometimes he wondered if he was wrong about Jin and Minah. He didn’t know. Minah said she was straight, and he, at least, had the decency not to question that.

He backed up as the crowd swelled, stayed right on the edge as it grew rowdy, and watched on as his friends had fun. A new song started, one that beckoned summer in the most nostalgic ways. Daehee would always blast it over the speakers on their way to the beach, all crammed inside the old junker van he had bought of Captain with Daemyung in the front seat, Hani on his lap, and Hanbyul, Minah, Hyeri, Solji, Zelo, Yongguk, Himchan, and Daehyun himself all crammed into the two back rows. It was the song they played when school was out, the days were too hot, and the ocean was in view. Daehyun wondered if Hanbyul had picked it just to remind him how long it had been since they last went to the beach.

The band faded into the noise of a crashing ocean, the theater into the blue sky existing in a complete absence of clouds, the black floors against his red Converse into sand between his toes, and the crowd became the ocean that separated him from the others. He remembered those days well, with his floaties slipping down his arms and his toes dug into the sand, just close enough to the water to let it touch his toes, but no closer because he couldn’t swim and he was too wary of the ocean to risk letting it engulf his ankles. He had spent so many summers standing on the edge of the water, listening to Daemyung tease him for not even wading in knee deep, hearing how the waves crashed and swelled and crashed again in something powerful, but calming— something terrifying, but unavoidable.

When he was fourteen, Suwoong came with them to the beach and helped blow up Daehyun’s floaties without even a hint of judgement. He went to join the others in the water, but turned in confusion when Daehyun didn’t follow.

“I can’t swim,” Daehyun had said. “I don’t know how.” He knew it to be an undeniable fact: he was not a swimmer.

“Then just hold onto me, I’ll swim for the both of us,” Suwoong had replied like it was nothing. He made a joke of it, having Daehyun climb on his shoulders and then charging out into the ocean until they reached the point where his toes barely touched the bottom of the beach floor. “Pinch your nose and hold your breath,” Suwoong had warned him, and Daehyun wanted to scream out an objection, but before he could, he had been dumped into the water.

For a moment he had thought he was drowning, but Suwoong pulled him out with a delighted laugh, pulled Daehyun’s arms around his neck, and swam with him like that out to the others. Daehyun had thought that maybe the ocean wasn’t so bad, but only if Suwoong was with him.

An arm around his shoulder pulled him out of his reverie and he found Zelo pulling him to the side in a short whirlwind, until he was facing what was once behind him, where Youngjae was waiting. There was something too confident in Zelo’s tone as he told them, “Now you can stare at each other up close, bye!”

“Wait!” Youngjae had called after him, but it was too late: Zelo had run off into the crowd. “He said he had something to tell you,” Youngjae said in a tone of voice that sounded like mumbling in the context of the concert, but would definitely be shouting anywhere else.

“He’s a weird kid sometimes,” Daehyun justified. 

“Wanna go join everyone else in the crowd?” Youngjae asked. “It looks fun.”

“Go ahead without me. I don’t really dance,” Daehyun replied. “I’m god-awful at it.”

“So?” Youngjae teased. “so is everyone else. Come on!” He nodded his head for Daehyun to follow him and then plunged into the crowd, and despite Daehyun’s reluctance, he dived in after him, into the sea of bodies moving to mediocre garage band music so loud it filled up every empty space inside them, screaming along to cover songs and enjoying it way too much. Even if everyone was off beat and the drummer couldn’t keep time, even if it was too hot and too sweaty to be comfortable, and even if everything seemed to be going to shit, at least for a moment they could just be dumb kids having fun.

It was about an hour later that the music cut, that Hanbyul came over the mic without musical backing to announce, “Aight everyone, we’ve about hit time, and if we don’t end by 11 then Mr. Yoon won’t let us use the theater anymore, so we gotta cut it there. But, before we get off stage—”

“Boo! Get off stage already!” Junghwa, one of the Tigers, shouted from the sidelines, setting the whole band into a fit of giggles. It wasn’t uncommon for them to hassle whatever band Hanbyul was in as they were getting off stage. The whole crowd was filled more or less entirely with his friends and people they had gone to school with, so it wasn’t uncommon to end in friendly teasing, especially with how hard it made Hanbyul laugh.

“Take your shirts off!” Hyeri shouted.

“If the two of you don’t shut up then I’m not gonna let you copy my homework next year,” Hanbyul managed to laugh out.

“What homework? We’re not even in high school anymore!” Junghwa shouted. 

“Okay but actually shut up because we have to do something important and we only got like two minutes,” Jin cut in, because Hanbyul was laughing too hard to speak. “We bought a cake, right? Just run of the mill, no reason, we bought a cake today,” there were cheers from the crowd. “We don’t have enough to share with everyone, so we figured we’d just smash it into someone’s face. Does anyone see someone with a particularly good face to shove cake into?”

They all pretended to search, but the crowd was already forming a circle around Daehyun. “Y’all the fuckin’ worst!” Daehyun was laughing, but he didn’t have enough time to even finish his statement before his whole face was buried in icing, the distinct sound of Himchan and Yongguk’s giggling behind him. 

Once Daehyun was finally let up for air, with the chocolate icing and bits of cake literally dripping from his face, he found himself nearly falling to the ground because he was laughing so hard. “That was so mean guys,” Jin said through the microphone, barely able to hide his giggles. “It’s his birthday and you just shoved his face into a cake. How could you be so cruel?”

Yongguk passed Daehyun a roll of paper towels, and people started toward the couches and the exits, wishing him a happy birthday as they passed. 

When Daehyun had finally cleared enough of it out of his eyelashes to be able to see, he found Youngjae was still there and still giggling at him and his icing-covered face. “They do that literally every year,” Daehyun whined. “Why is everyone so mean to me?”

“It’s not their fault you have a particularly cake-able face,” Youngjae replied. His giggle was growing as Daehyun completely failed at cleaning his face and hair of icing and cake bits.

“I don’t know why I thought I would get sympathy from you. You’re literally always so mean to me. Even on my birthday, the disrespect!” Daehyun joked. “Also, cake-able is not a word and I’m personally offended that you made it up just to describe my face.”

“I’m personally offended by your face,” Youngjae replied without a thought. A wide smile spread across his cheeks a moment later at Daehyun’s dumbfounded look.

“Yeah, you’re proud of yourself for that one, aren’t you, boo?” Daehyun asked. “Is there still cake on my face?”

“Yeah, there’s a ton. You’re really bad at this,” Youngjae replied.

“I’m doin’ my best,” Daehyun whined. “Mind cleanin’ me up, babe?”

“Why do I put up with you?” Youngjae asked in an entirely teasing tone. He took the roll of paper towels from Daehyun and started wiping off the frosting for him. After a moment, the two shifted a bit closer.

Daehyun’s cheeks were turning red. He quickly adjusted his stance wider, took on a proud expression, and put on his cocky tone of voice, “Because I’m incredibly handsome and you’re in love with me, right, babe? You’re just madly in love with me and that’s why you put up with how bad I am at wiping cake off my face.”

“You’re really delusional, you know that?” Youngjae teased.

“That’s so cold, boo. That’s freezing. I can’t believe you’re bein’ so cold to me on my birthday of all days. I’m heartbroken. Honestly, just gonna hafta go cry in a corner with my cake-face about how bad you just froze on me.” Daehyun’s usual whining was making Youngjae laugh harder than normal.

“Imagine if that were your supervillain name,” Youngjae laughed. “Cakeface— like Scarface but lamer.”

“Shut up, I would be the fuckin’ coolest, most badass, scariest, cake-covered supervillain the world had ever known,” Daehyun said. “What would my arch-nemesis be called? The gingerbread man? Cleanface? Bakerman?”

“Your arch-nemesis would be a sentient roll of paper towels,” Youngjae replied.

“Wait, so is it like, ripping off parts of it’s own body every time it has to defeat me? It has to slowly kill itself to fight me, knowing one day it will be out of paper, and dead, while I remain at large? Or does it use other rolls of paper towels in some form of paper-towel-on-paper-towel murder? That’s fucked up, Youngjae.”

“You’re the one who thought of that!” Youngjae exclaimed. “What the fuck?”

“I’m just tryin’ to figure out how this universe works, okay?” Daehyun laughed. “Geez, boo, can’t believe you came up with such a fucked up story.” They went into quiet giggles for a moment, and then Daehyun cut in with a much quieter, “am I clean enough now?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can get it all outta your hair,” Youngjae replied as he passed the roll of paper towels back to Daehyun.

The theater was more or less empty except for the band members packing up their instruments. Without the swelling heat of the crowd, it was almost cold in there, the once too small room now feeling large and strangling. “Let me walk you home. Don’t wanna risk you gettin’ lost,” Daehyun suggested.

“Sure,” Youngjae agreed. “Zelo actually had to come get me on the way here.”

“I noticed,” Daehyun replied.

Outside, the silence rang in their ears and choked down their dry throats, and the warm summer air ran cold between them, pulling them closer together. Each kept trying to find the right words to say to each other, but neither could think of anything interesting or witty enough to warrant breaking the silence, which quickly grew comfortable around them. 

Time ran by them too quickly and the space between Youngjae’s apartment building and the theater only seemed to grow as the two thought of how they wanted to spend more time with one another. “I like the hair, by the way,” Daehyun cut through that silence when they had just reached Youngjae’s building. “Red suits you really well.”

“Thanks.” Youngjae leaned up against the wall of his building, a small quirk upwards hidden in the corner of his lips. “I wanted to try to be the guy with dyed hair.”

“I like it,” Daehyun repeated. In the beat of silence that followed, he found himself stepping closer until he was only a couple inches from Youngjae with breaths shared between them. Neither said anything for just a second too long.

Youngjae looked down to Daehyun’s lips for just a second, then back up at him with a gulp. “Well, happy birthday. And, um, thanks for walking me home, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Daehyun agreed in a soft tone, “no problem, and thanks. Um…. yeah. I’ll see you around, I guess. I’ll probably drop by sometime soon if you’re home or somethin’.” Neither moved. Their eyes had locked and with empty heads they just stared at each other.

A car sped past.

Daehyun stepped away. 

“I’ll see you around,” Youngjae agreed, and then he was gone, the sound of the door closing in his wake.

Daehyun stared at it for a couple of seconds before walking away, hands in his pockets, icing in his hair, and a small skip in his step.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It doesn't matter." Youngjae's voice carried through the cool night air. His apartment felt stuffy and confining, and his phone buzzed one too many times with texts from Daehyun for him to avoid his brother's amused stares. He wandered around the dark streets, quiet without the sound of cars passing through. "How am I supposed to be with someone when I don’t even know who I am? Besides, he's just another Jaebum. I can tell."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!~ So, I'm very happy to bring you this next chapter of graffiti and I hope you all enjoy it!! I really really value constructive criticism and comments in general so if you could do me a huge favor, I'd love it if you dropped a comment after reading maybe with what you liked or what you didn't like, or any notes on how to improve!~ 
> 
> As a side note, I'm currently on a 100% hiatus from twitter and a semi-hiatus on tumblr due to some mental health issues (I'm sure that those who read Masked are more than use to me doing this at this point) so ! contacting me on twitter is currently a no-go, I won't see your message, but tumblr and here, I'll still be around to respond. Thanks for understanding and thanks for reading!!
> 
> [Tumblr](http://foxjae.tumblr.com) | [Twitter (Hiatus)](https://twitter.com/youngjaebunny)

"It doesn't matter." Youngjae's voice carried through the cool night air. His apartment felt stuffy and confining, and his phone buzzed one too many times with texts from Daehyun for him to avoid his brother's amused stares. He wandered around the dark streets, quiet without the sound of cars passing through. "How am I supposed to be with someone when I don’t even know who I am? Besides, he's just another Jaebum. I can tell." 

"Are you sure?" His friend Donggeun's voice was grainy over the phone, something Youngjae was unaccustomed too. They used to live right next to each other, just a doorbell away from talking face to face. Now the miles between left them grateful for cell phones. 

"Positive." Youngjae veered into an alleyway on a whim when he reached the tattoo parlor. Gravel crunched under foot as his path narrowed and what light remained from the street lamps and the city haze allowed him to see the walls there were marked, even if he could not tell by what. He could hear Donggeun rambling on about trust and communication, but he did not care to listen. "I have to go,” he cut Donggeun off mid-sentence.

"Yeah, it's getting late," his friend agreed, however sad his tone became. "Call me again soon, okay? Tell me how it all works out."

"Yeah, yeah," Youngjae said, his voice dismissive. They said their goodbyes and he hung up. The flashlight on his phone illuminated the tags on the wall, colorful and expansive. Daehyun's stood clear amongst the others with its lack of color and its crown, scrawled under the word 'obey' which Youngjae was quickly learning had been written around pretty much every corner he turned.

His footsteps lead further down the alley and he distracted himself with very forced thoughts about the graffiti he found, as if refusing to let his mind wander. The hollow sound of each step was drowned by the heavy air, once again soaked in humidity. It had only been a week, but he thought he might be used to the heat. Nights once felt stifling and hot, but in comparison to the day they were cool and pleasant. Drips of water occasionally dropped down from the gutters of the apartment buildings he wove between, and once in a while one would hit his head.

Further into the alley, down a couple twists and turns, he found another spray-painted 'Obey' scrawled across the brick. Underneath was a cartoon, similar to the one he had found on the tattoo shop. There were three boys, each with dark eyes and crown. The first stood in a hoodie, a stoic expression on his face, and the name “Daehee” written below. The second was in a T-shirt with a mole on his cheek and the name “Daemyung” marking him. The final one of that cartoon boys was immediately recognizable as Daehyun even before reading his name underneath, with a mole under his eye and that ever-present cocky smirk. Daemyung was smiling, or perhaps the artist meant for him to be laughing given the way his eyes were scrunched up into lines, and his crown was lopsided unlike the stoic Daehee’s. Daehyun's was lopsided as well, but larger than the other two's crowns. Someone had written 'King Jung Trio' next to the tag of the artist, and Youngjae found that the writing around it was not more tags but rather other nicknames for Daehyun and his brothers: “3 Days”, “The Tiger’s Pets”, “Golden Boys”, “Art Pop Trio”, and so on. Someone had written, “isn’t this a boy band?” to one of the sides in electric blue, and a comment in pink underneath replied, “The Jonas Brothers, revamped.” 

Coughing from further into the alley drew his attention, and he turned his flashlight off before approaching. It came from around a corner, so he did his best to be silent on the off chance that it was a member of the Wolf Pack.

As he got closer, the hair on his neck stood up on its ends and his heart pounded in his ears. Still, he inched closer. He peered around the edge to see a boy leaning against the brick wall on his phone, the light illuminating a little blood on his knuckles and a small stream of it in the corner of his lips.

Youngjae froze. His hands shook. It took him a full three seconds to realize he had been seen, and two more to take off running.

“Wait! Fuck!” A voice called. Thundering footsteps were following after him. He opened his mouth to scream but his breath was coming too hard for him to make a single sound. He took random turns in hopes of confusing whoever was chasing him, but only managed to get lost. He ended up hitting a dead-end, with walls on either side and chain-link fence in front of him. He began to climb it, only to be pulled off a second later.

When his back hit the wall, Youngjae was ready to collapse. With the last of his energy, he tried to catch his breath to call for help, only to have a hand clamped over his mouth. So, he tried to take a swing at the guy. His hands were pinned to the wall.

Before the thought could occur to him that now he would be able to scream, a rather unfamiliar voice spoke. "Wait, you're the new kid, aren't you?"

His head shot up. The guy looked familiar. "Yeah," he said, "I thought you were a Wolf."

"Funny, that's what I thought you were," the guy said. "I'm Yoongi. I think we met yesterday at the concert. You were hanging with Zelo and Bang, right?" Youngjae nodded. Yoongi let go of Youngjae and stepped back. He ran his hand through his hair before speaking again. "Man, does Daehyun know you're out here? He's going to be pissed."

"Why?" After several seconds of struggling, that was all Youngjae could say.

"Well, for one, there's a metric shit ton of shitty ass Wolf Pack members out tonight and they're all lookin' for a fight. Two, I just nearly ran you down and fuckin’ clocked you, and he's probably not gonna be to fuckin’ happy ‘bout that either," Yoongi replied. He seemed taken aback by the whole situation, his eyebrows furrowed and his stance defensive.

"No," Youngjae interrupted, "why would I tell him where I am?"

Yoongi paused, a confused look on his face. "I dunno. I just kinda figured you would. Y'know so he could tell you if there was shit goin' down tonight and avoid this exact dumbass situation."

"I can take care of myself," Youngjae replied. The two stared at each other, a solid two feet between them. It was awkward, and Youngjae wondered if Yoongi was debating on punching him anyway just to prove a point.

"You sure ‘bout that? You realize everythin’ that just happened, right? I literally caught you, if I was Wolf Pack I would’a’ fuckin’ decked you or some shit,” Yoongi was met with an angry glare. “I’m not to say you can't hold your own or nothin', just that it's not your fight so there's no reason for you to get roughed up over it, right?" After a second, he added, "fuckin’ shit, man, if I'd'a' clocked you he'd probably beat the livin’ shit outta me. Damn that was close."

"I wouldn't have told him it was you.”

"Thanks. Honestly, I'd probably say 'let's forget this whole thing and not tell nobody' but I’m tryin’ to get outta fightin’ people right now so I'll walk you home, I guess. No reason for you to get clocked by some random Wolf 'cause they're thinkin' you're one of us, right? Not bein’ lazy, just responsible." His arm wrapped around Youngjae's shoulder, tugging him out of the dead end and back into the map of interconnecting alleyways. 

"Thanks, I guess." Youngjae agreed, allowing Yoongi to lead him along.

"No biggie, this is all pretty usual. People bein' out when shit's goin' down is like normal at this point. Always gotta walk people home. Why were you out anyway? We can take a detour if you were headin' somewhere." Yoongi's voice had a similar drawl to Daehyun's. “Longer we’re walkin’ the less chance of me havin’ to fight someone.”

"I wanted to look at the graffiti. It's nice."

"There's not any pieces on this block," Yoongi told him. "'Shame, I know, but there aren't really many pieces in general. Until Z started writin' and all, we had to worry 'bout the cops, so unless the alley ran deep it was pretty dangerous to do more than throw somethin' up real quick. Most of us ain’t got the money to keep payin’ that fuckin’ fine, you know?"

"I like the tags too," Youngjae replied, using his phone's flashlight again to look at the walls as they passed. 

"Why?" Yoongi asked. Youngjae did not have an answer. They walked in silence for a while, and Youngjae reached one of the many 'Obey's that littered the alleyways. 

"Why is 'Obey' written all over the place?"

Yoongi looked over to where the words were still illuminated by Youngjae's light, a slight downturn at the edge of his lips. "I dunno, really. I think Daehyun's oldest brother did it back when he was tryin’ to cut us outta the Tigers. All I know is that it marks our turf, and that means no Tigers or Wolves are allowed 'round here."

"Tigers?"

"Another gang. They got most of North Shore, besides us and the Strip. Our streets are strictly no-gang, no-dealing, no-bullshit, and then we got Red Tiger and the Wolf Pack on our edges. Tigers don't give us shit, though, we're friends with most of ‘em. Couple of ‘em even came to the Hanbyul’s last night since we close and all. Daehyun's talked about callin' them up to kick the Wolf Pack out if this shit keeps goin' but it's only been like a week, right? 'Figure it might just take a little more than that to get them to stay away."

Youngjae nodded, and the two reached the end of the alley. They exited onto the street and paused, before Yoongi told him to lead the way. They chatted more as they walked back to Youngjae's apartment, mostly about the band they had heard last night and their shared interest in electronics. Yoongi gave him his number before Youngjae went inside, insisting that they'd go downtown one day so Yoongi could show him some shop that only sold old music equipment like walkmen and record players.

He finally checked his phone again, but Daehyun hadn't texted him in an hour or so, since Youngjae had stopped responding before he had went out and called Donggeun. He wondered if it was frustrating that most of the time he didn't answer Daehyun's texts, but at the same time he imagined Daehyun didn't care. He didn't really seem like the type that would. 

He spent an hour or so confined in his room so he could chat with his friends from back home online, and then a knock sounded at his window. He looked up in confusion to find Daehyun on the other side and a little blood on the window where he had knocked.

Youngjae opened it for him without much thought other than confusion and Daehyun climbed in without a word. "Yoongi told me he found you wanderin' around," Daehyun explained. He ran his hand through his hair with a slight hiss. "I figured I'd come make sure you were alright. There were hella Wolves out." His voice was a little faster than normal, as if he had lost that calm drawl in his embarrassment, even if the rest of his accent was still there.

"I'm fine." His face heated up a bit. "Were you out fighting like him?" 

He caught a glimpse of Daehyun's knuckles then, his eyes suddenly fixed on the broken skin and bit of red escaping. He missed Daehyun's blushed cheeks at his fixation, but not the nervousness in his voice. "Yeah, I roughed a couple of them up and threw 'em off our streets," he admitted, "no biggie, only one of 'em got a swing at me in."

"Your knuckles are bleeding," Youngjae observed.

Daehyun paused, holding up his hands so he could examine the backs of them himself. "They are." It went silent, with the two looking into each other's eyes and Daehyun's hands suspended between them. After just a beat more than what one might consider a normal pause, Daehyun spoke again. "So, um, mind cleanin' me up, babe?" He mimicked his question from the night before.

"Sure," Youngjae answered with his focus back on Daehyun's hands. "Follow me." The two left his room and went to the bathroom. He closed the door behind them.

"What, hidin' me from your family?" Daehyun teased, "or are you plannin' on comin' onto me, babe?"

Youngjae snorted. "Clearly the latter. We both know I'm just dying to have sex with you." That set them both into a fit of giggles.

"Aren't you though?" Daehyun's voice was still teasing, but now it had dropped an octave. Youngjae just rolled his eyes and went back to rifling through the medicine cabinet, and then the boxes piled up in the corner of the bathroom. "Oh, so cold, babe. You're rejectin' me again? When I'm hurt and vulnerable?" Daehyun's voice was nothing but teasing and silly. "You really are a stone-cold heartbreaker, huh?"

"You are completely correct," Youngjae agreed with a snort. "You're ridiculous, you know that?"

"What?" Daehyun pretended to be taken aback as Youngjae continued searching through the boxes, having already pulled out one bottle. "What could you possibly mean by that? I am a very serious, terrifying gang leader."

"I thought it was a neighborhood watch," Youngjae retorted, although he knew Daehyun's entire comment had been sarcastic.

"Well you disrespected me so now it's a gang. A big, scary gang, full of tough guys that will definitely beat your ass with their crazy big muscles if you're mean to me."

"Daehyun," Youngjae paused his digging to catch his eye.

"What?"

"That was really gay." They stared at each other for a second and then both broke down in hysterical laughter, which took a full minute to subside. "Seriously, that was so gay," Youngjae repeated as he laughed.

"Excuse me, I happen to think talkin' 'bout tough guys beatin’ other dude's asses with their huge muscles is totally hetero'," Daehyun replied, still laughing. 

"Listen, as much as I am for muscled up dudes doing butt stuff..." Youngjae stopped talking because he was laughing too hard, and Daehyun was clutching his sides. 

"What's that about butt stuff?" Daehyun teased.

"I'm just saying, you can't really 'no homo' your way out of that," Youngjae said, a little louder than Daehyun had ever heard his voice before. They had to pause again because they were laughing too hard, and Youngjae had given up momentarily on searching for whatever medical supplies he was lacking.

"No, no, you can totally 'no homo' your way into and outta anal," Daehyun defended. Youngjae collapsed from laughing to hard. "What?"

Youngjae rolled onto his side so he could look up at him. "Do you actually hear the things you say?"

"No, absolutely not," Daehyun joked. "I have a strict policy of not payin' attention to a single thing I say ever. I don't even pay attention to whether or not I'm speakin'. I could be talkin' right now, I wouldn't know." Youngjae snorted again. Daehyun couldn’t help but smile. It took a moment or two for Youngjae to sit up and turn back to the box again, and a couple more to find a little box and a roll of medical tape. Then, he stood with the couple supplies he had dug out in his hands.

"Here, put your hands over the sink," he directed. Once Daehyun did so, Youngjae turned the tap on cold and let the dried blood wash off. Daehyun rubbed at his hands with a slight hiss to get the last of it off, and then the tap was turned off and Youngjae passed him a hand towel. 

Free of dried blood, Daehyun's knuckles looked to be skinned. The skin was red and raw, with little clumps of peeling skin gathered in lopsided circles around each knuckle. Daehyun dried his hands and then returned them to their position over the sink. He saw Youngjae unscrewing the dark bottle he had gotten out earlier, and then clear liquid was poured over the raw skin.

Daehyun let out a loud hiss at the sting and winced, perhaps over dramatically.

"You're such a terrifying gang leader," Youngjae teased, "so tough and emotionless."

"Don't be a dick," Daehyun whined. "Peroxide stings and you know it." Youngjae relented with a chuckle and pulled a piece of gauze out of the little box he had found.

"Hold that," He instructed as he placed it over the knuckles of Daehyun's right hand. Daehyun did so and Youngjae wound the medical tape around his hand to keep it in place. They repeated the process with his left hand. "There, all patched up."

"Aren't you going to kiss it better, boo?" Daehyun asked, and although his voice was teasing, there was hope in his eyes.

"Wow, Daehyun, are you flirting with me?" Youngjae nearly sounded sincere, except for the small upturn at the end of his lips that slowly morphed into an amused grin at Daehyun's laughter.

"Was I bein' too obvious?"

"You're always obvious." Youngjae's words almost sounded affectionate, but it certainly stopped Daehyun's laughing. His expression quickly turned sheepish, and Youngjae's, confused at the sudden change.

Daehyun's eyes flickered away momentarily, before meeting Youngjae's eyes again. "Sorry."

"I didn't say I don't like it," Youngjae replied with a shrug, and then turned to lead Daehyun out of the bathroom and back to his room. Daehyun took a couple moments to follow, occupied by staring, dumbfounded. By the time he followed after, Youngjae had already made it inside his room. "What took you so long?" Youngjae asked when Daehyun came in.

"I was tryin' to think of some shitty-as-fuck pick up lines to use on you," Daehyun lied with a shrug. He couldn't keep letting his cool facade fall like this, and resolved to hide back behind his cocky demeanor. He licked his lips, adjusting his stance a bit.

Youngjae seemed unimpressed from where he was sitting on his bed. "What'd you come up with?"

"Um," Daehyun may have panicked slightly. "Nice shoes, wanna fuck?"

Youngjae looked down at his clothed feet for a couple seconds before returning his gaze with raised eyebrows. "I'm not even wearing shoes," he pointed out.

"Now if only you could say that about the rest of your clothes," Daehyun replied. He thought for a moment. "Nah, nevermind that was lame. Give me a minute, I'll come up with some better ones." Youngjae snorted as Daehyun took a seat on his desk chair. They both turned to their phones briefly and silence fell between them for a couple minutes.

"I'll treat you like my homework:" Youngjae read off his phone, "slam you on the table and do you all night long."

"Nerd," Daehyun laughed. "So, is that a mirror in your pocket?" He read from his phone after a couple seconds of biting his lip.

"What?" 

"Because I see myself in your pants," Daehyun replied, sending Youngjae into a fit of giggles. "You know, Youngjae, I was feeling a little bit off today, but you really turned me on."

"Are you a vampire?" Youngjae retorted, "because you look a little thirsty when you look at me."

"Hold on, I scrolled passed the perfect response to that." Daehyun held up his finger briefly as he went searching through his phone, before reading, "Your body is 75% water and I'm thirsty." There was a certain amount of pride swelling in Daehyun's chest when Youngjae started laughing so hard that he fell to the side again. It must have been more comfortable though, since this time he was on a bed and not on the bathroom floor. "You're really cute," Daehyun breathed while Youngjae was still giggling.

Youngjae stopped, his face turning pinker than what it had been from laughing. His cheeks burned slightly and he had the urge to cover his face. But no, that would be admitting defeat, so instead he sat up and tried to erase all emotion from his face. "That second one gets and F-; it was completely uncreative."

"Oh come on." Daehyun whined. "I deserve at least a D+, for effort." He couldn't help but smile when Youngjae smiled. "Besides, F-'s don't exist, and don't say F+ because that doesn't exist either."

"We'll compromise on a D- then. Just enough to pass."

Daehyun snorted. "Nerd," He said again, dragging the word out longer than it would be in his natural drawl. He turned away for a second in hopes of composing himself before he delivered another pick up line. It wouldn't be as funny if he giggles all the way through, after all. However, in the moments where he turned to stare at the wall behind Youngjae's desk, he noticed some things hanging that had not been there the last time he had come over.

Youngjae had hung up all of his drawings.

"Hey, you hung these up." The ones he had done of tags and of Zelo's  _ Broken Things  _ mural were off to one side, and the Dog&Cat cartoon took up the middle and other side, with a lot of space below it as if Youngjae was hoping to put more continuations of it up one day. The drawing he had done of Youngjae was nowhere in sight.

Youngjae shrugged, but his face was a little pink again. "I ran out of posters," he lied. There were still some rolled up visible underneath his bed.

"I could draw you more, if you want," Daehyun offered, "'looks like there's still some space left to fill and all, 'nd I like drawin' so I wouldn't mind fillin' the holes." He tried to play it off as nonchalant, but when his eyes flickered back to the wall there was a smile on his face.

Youngjae went silent for a couple seconds, with his lips thinned and his eyebrows furrowed. "You're saying you want to fill my holes?" He sounded a bit hesitant, but the teasing aspect was still in his tone. When Daehyun buried his red face in his hands as a result, hysterical laughter bubbled out of Youngjae and his whole body shook as Daehyun just sat as still as can be.

Eventually, as Youngjae's laughter faded, Daehyun looked up again. His face was still flushed, but he was laughing along with Youngjae. "Well, I'm not gonna say 'no'!" They both started giggling again. "How many times are you gonna bring up anal tonight?"

"Excuse me, I believe I said 'holes', plural. So that time was anal  _ and  _ oral."

"Jesus Christ," Daehyun muttered, pressing his hand against the side of his nose. "Youngjae, I am just an innocent, sweet young man. I cannot believe you are trying to corrupt me with these dirty words."

"I thought you were a terrifying gang leader with a penchant for one night stands," Youngjae teased.

"That's only when you're bein' mean to me. Which, to be fair, is always." He turned to the desk and grabbed one of the notebooks sitting at the back of the it. He flipped to a random, clean page and then started searching for any pens or pencils to draw with. "Where are your pencils?"

"In the box to your left, on the bookshelf." 

It took Daehyun a couple seconds to find the box among the many small boxes near Youngjae's desk. Once he had, he pulled out a pencil, some color pencils, and a black marker. "Man, you have all these good art supplies and you gave me none last time, you dick,” Daehyun whined. "What should I draw?"

"I don't know. How about your two alter egos?" He teased.

Daehyun tapped the pencil against his chin for a couple seconds before beginning to draw, and when he looked back he noticed Youngjae had turned his attention to his phone. First, he drew what Youngjae had asked for, two poorly drawn versions of himself as either some sweet-innocent kid or a supposed gang leader, although really they just looked kind of silly. It took a couple minutes, toward the end of which Youngjae had come over to stand behind him and watch. "Those are terrible," Youngjae said.

"Shut up. I'd like to see you do better," Daehyun replied. He finished up and flipped the page, then began drawing another Dog & Cat cartoon. This time, he colored the dog brown and the cat red, like their hair, and covered his pencil lines with the black marker when he was done.  He confined this one to only one page, but four panels.

In the first, the dog sat alone. A small huff of air was drawn next to his mouth and he looked sad. His tail was flat against the ground and his ears were drooping. The second image was the same, except the cat had entered the shot and was looking at the dog with an exclamation point next to its head. In the third, the cat brushed up against the dog, it's eyes closed and one paw raised. This time the dog had an exclamation point as its gaze turned toward the cat. In the final panel, the two animals sat side by side, their tails crossing and smiling. 

"Like it?" Daehyun asked.

"It's cute," Youngjae admitted with a small smile, "I like it better than the first one." He took the notebook from Daehyun's hands. He ripped out the page, and the page with Daehyun's drawing of himself as well, and then grabbed some sticky tack from a box and hung the two up. 

"Could I sketch you again?" Daehyun immediately regretted his question as Youngjae tensed up. His cheeks were still a little pink and he turned to lean against the desk and look away.

"Sure, I guess," he mumbled after a long time. "What should I do?"

"Just stay like that." His eyes remained fixed on Youngjae for a couple of seconds before he started sketching. His pencil moved quickly across the paper and his eyes flickered up every couple of seconds to capture the next part of the image.

Youngjae tried to be subtle when he shifted slightly so he could peer down at what Daehyun was drawing. He had just finished Youngjae's eyes, with the rest of his face and body outlined as lightly as possible and a singular line under his hand to represent the top of the desk. Youngjae quickly turned his eyes away again when Daehyun looked up again, and held still for a couple more minutes. "I'm done with your face now, if you wanna watch," Daehyun mumbled. 

Youngjae gulped, but looked down. He stiffened as he watched Daehyun smudging the pencil on his face to create shadow and then began working on Youngjae's neck and shoulders.

They were silent for a long time as Daehyun drew and Youngjae watched. He seemed to go faster with the rest of the image, paying less attention to the little details and leaving the ends more sketchy rather than full drawn, such that the whole drawing was a gradient that went from fully drawn to a couple light lines. Daehyun's eyes flickered up, watching Youngjae's expression as he flipped the notebook around to show him properly.

"You're really good at sketching," Youngjae said, his voice soft. He gulped and looked away.

Daehyun, a bit dejected, put the notebook back down on the desk. "It's just a lotta practice. I used to do it a lot when I was in school. 'Didn't like my classes much so I would sketch people instead. No one moves much when they're takin' notes, y'know? And now, I dunno. There's lots of free time at work so..." He mumbled.

"Where do you work?" Youngjae asked.

"I'm part time as a fire fighter right now. 'Not many fires out here though, so a lot of times it just means sittin' and waitin' to see if we get a call. I'm actually on call right now, but I don't have to be at the station for that." He motioned to the pager on his waist.

Youngjae stared at him for a long time, mouth agape slightly. "Well, um, if you want someone to hang out with during work and it's allowed..." He trailed off, as if his statement was getting too long for him to feel comfortable speaking. He looked away, rubbing the back of his neck and started tapping on the desktop lightly, as if he was marking the moments between his trailing off and Daehyun responding.

"I'd like it if you dropped by some time," Daehyun smiled, "I don't think they'll mind so long as I'm ready to go if we get a call, and it would be nice, um, less boring and all." The air between them had turned awkward. "I'm workin’ tomorrow at one if you want to drop by?" He offered.

"Sure," Youngjae agreed, "I don't know where the station is though." 

"You could find it online, probably, or, I dunno, I could come by tomorrow and walk over with you? We could get lunch first, if we did that." Youngjae was staring at the wall behind his bed and Daehyun at the opposite wall. The moments of silence between them were awkward.

"Yeah, sure, that sounds good." He gulped.

"I'll come get you around noon then,” Daehyun said. After a couple moments, he stood, drawing Youngjae's attention. "I should probably go. It's getting late. My mom will probably freak if I'm not home by like 3 AM."

"See you tomorrow." Youngjae offered a small smile, and Daehyun waved in response before he opened the window and climbed out.

A knock came from his door not long after the window shut with a squeak and a thud. Younggeun poked his head into the room, and then came to peer over Youngjae's shoulder at the drawing he was staring at. "So, he drew another one.”

"Yeah," Youngjae replied. He ripped the page out and put it in one of the drawers of his desk with the other. "Were we being too loud?"

"No, I didn't hear much,” Younggeun replied, "outside of when you were in the bathroom talking about anal."

Youngjae slammed his hand into his face. "Shit. Are Mom and Dad home?"

"No, they went to Aunt Sooyoung‘s for dinner and decided to stay the night. They called while you were out to say they didn't want to make the drive back so late." Younggeun answered. 

"Thank God," Youngjae mumbled. 

They were silent for a couple seconds, but it was comfortable. "Have you slept with him?" Younggeun's question was hesitant. Youngjae could hear the disapproval.

"No," Youngjae mumbled, "I don't want to. I’m not ready to get involved with someone again."

"He reminds me of Jaebum." His brother's disapproval made a lot more sense. "And— And I'm not saying he definitely is, or that you should stop talking to him or anything. Just, I don't know, make sure he's different, you know?"

"Yeah, I'm keeping my distance,” Youngjae confirmed. "Did Sojin call?"

"Yeah, still nothing though. She was going to buy a test today but her mom decided to go with her to the supermarket. She says she'll get Yura to sneak her one tomorrow, so we'll know then." He seemed nervous, biting his lip and checking his phone as if there would be a sudden update on the situation at two in the morning.

"How late is she?" Youngjae asked, and both boys cringed a little at the word 'late'.

"A week and a half is what she said. Maybe that's normal, though? It's not supposed to be super exact or anything, right? There's still a chance she isn't..." He trailed off and rubbed his hand over his eyes.

"You know, Mom and Dad would kill you if they found out you got her pregnant," Youngjae reminded.

"Don't say that word," Younggeun groaned, "and it’s not for sure yet! She said it's like a 50/50 chance." There was a pause. "Let's change the subject. I don't even want to think about it. Are you seeing him again soon?"

"We're supposed to go for lunch tomorrow, and then chill for a while.”

"Like a date?" Younggeun asked.

"No." Youngjae was quick to say. "I mean, actually, I don't know. I think it's just hanging out as friends. It'll be better that way, if we just stay friends."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The King vs. The Wolf Pup  
> The King vs. The Paper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for all your patience! please drop a comment telling me what you think of this chapter, constructive criticism welcome ^^
> 
> [Tumblr](http://foxjae.tumblr.com) | [Twitter](https://twitter.com/youngjaebunny)

“But yeah, that shit wasn’t fair of me. I shouldn’t be takin’ my stress out on you guys no matter how shitty the fuckin’ Wolves get. Sorry for all that; I won’t pull dumb shit like it again,” Daehyun drawled. He leaned back on the white couch he was sitting on in the waiting area of Stigma.

“It’s no problem, bro,” Jimin replied with a warm smile from the identical couch across from him. A coffee table with assorted worn magazines stood between them. “We get it, and we pro’ly shouldn’t’a’ been pushin’ it and all. Like, you said you didn’t wanna talk ‘bout it maybe 80 times, we should’a’ listened and all that consent shit.”

“So we good then?” Daehyun clarified. His foot tapped against the black linoleum floors.

“Yeah, ‘course, dude!” Jungkook replied. “Shit happens. It’s not like this was even a big deal.”

Jimin nodded in eager agreement. “We’ve had way worse scuffs, right? Fuck, remember that time Jun— Zelo straight up decked Chan for insultin’ his piece? How long was it before you two talked again, Channie? Like three weeks?”

“Remember that time where we agreed not to bring it up anymore?” Himchan chimed from behind the long, thin white counter that separated the waiting area from the back rooms where tattoos were actually done. He accidentally hit the small plant in its checkered vase with his elbow as he huffed.

“You just don’t wanna talk about it ‘cause your old grandpa ass got kicked by some sixteen year old,” Jimin teased.

“Or because that was right after Z’s mom… you know… they made up and Z doesn’t like talkin’ ‘bout it so maybe we shouldn’t…” Jungkook trailed in and out, his hand on his friend’s knee and his voice so soft the others could barely hear. “Like… talkin’ ‘bout people freakin’ out ‘cause they’re havin’ a bad time… and—”

“Yeah, yeah you’re right. I forgot. Kind’a’ easy to when he only told Dae for the first month or whatever. ‘Decked Chan ‘cause he was already hurtin’ but Chan didn’t know any better,” Jimin agreed. “Sorry, ‘shouldn’t’a’ brought it up.”

“Bang, you’re missin’ it,” Himchan called toward the white hallway behind him. 

“Missin’ what?’ Yongguk’s gruff voice came back. He was black and white like his shop, not an edge of color to his outfit. Himchan had matched him in all black that day, but more often than not he stood out as one of two colorful additions in the otherwise monochrome store, the other being the piece behind them.

“Daehyun and the kids are bein’ all responsible and forgivin’ and shit. Fuckin’ realizing when they’re wrong about things and apologizing right away like real adults. He’s nearly bein’ like Daehee, you know? A good leader, knows when he fucked up, all that good shit,” Himchan beamed.

Yongguk didn’t seem as impressed, a simple shrug from him as he came to the other side of the counter and leaned back against it. “He’s always been more like Daehee when it comes to the important stuff, right, Daehyun? You take after Daemyung in a lotta ways, but you got all the best from Daehee.”

“You’re actin’ like Daemyung’s completely unreasonable,” Daehyun replied. “He’s got some grudges that make sense too.”

“Name one time he’s ever held a grudge against someone for a good reason,” Himchan challenged. “He’s still mad at me for buffin’ his tag off my car even though I buffed  _ all _ the shit off my car. He’s still mad at Daehee for — what was it?” 

“Daehee borrowed his bike when they were kids and some dumbass hit it with his car,” Daehyun replied.

“Is he okay?” Jungkook asked.

“It happened over a decade ago,” Himchan assured, “and he’s still mad! But seriously, I don’t think he’s ever held any single one grudge for somethin’ that made sense. Even better, he hears I said that? He’ll hold another one ‘gainst me for sayin’ it.”

“How ‘bout that Moon kid?” Daehyun challenged. “That reasonable enough for you?”

“Excludin’ times someone went to jail for the shit he was mad about,” Himchan shot back. “Can’t count that when the police got involved, ‘course he held a grudge. Jeez, you’re actin’ like Daemyung’s a saint or some shit. Like he’s—”

“Like he’s Daehee?” Daehyun filled in.

“Yeah, exactly. Listen, I’m just sayin’ it’s good you’re takin’ after Daehee, a’right? You’re growin’ up to be a lot like him and that’s a good thing,” defended Himchan. He shifted around for a couple seconds, before settling with his weight on one foot and his forearms flat on the counter. “He’d be proud.”

“Daehee would be proud,” Yongguk agreed.

“I’m sure he will be proud when he finds out then, since there’s no chance he won’t. It’s like he’s always watchin’ me or some shit. Someone’s a’ready off tellin’ everything else I do, don’t know how he wouldn’t hear ‘bout this too. Next thing I know some burnin’ bush is gonna tell me he likes my choice in shoes or somethin’ with how things have been going since mom kicked ‘im out,” Daehyun grumbled, trying to make it sound like he was joking and not actually bothered.

Zelo’s voice came from outside, and the lot of them turned their heads to watch as he walked by. He was laughing, his hands clutched at his sides, nearly doubled over as he went. As he bent over they could see who was making him laugh.

Jongup peered into Stigma over Zelo’s shoulders, and a moment of fear struck across his cheeks when he saw those inside.

Daehyun shot a sharp, jerky nod at him.

Jongup, with his wide eyes, returned the gesture.

Daehyun turned his attention back inward to the room, to the thin line Yongguk’s lips had taken and the furrow between Himchan’s brows. “He’s been good for Zelo,” Himchan argued in a whisper. “Finally started comin’ in to talk to us. ‘Got ‘im eatin’ more and takin’ care of himself. Don’t—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Daehyun replied at full volume. “After all, I’m like Daehee, right?”

“Shit, Daehyun is—” Zelo seemed to notice who was inside, his voice carrying through the window.

“Don’t worry ’bout it, Z. I think we’re good.” Jongup glanced in again, though Daehyun refused to look back at him, his eyes firm on the piece on the wall behind the counter, which simply reiterated the shop’s name in an explosion of colors. “Let’s just go work on the piece, if he’s got somethin’ to say he’ll come say it.”

They crossed the street and he watched as Himchan lost the knot in his shoulders. “He’s a good kid, you know? Nothin’ like the Wolves. You’re doin’ good by lettin’ him ‘round Zelo; Daehee’d be proud of that too. Should I let everyone know?” 

“Really looks like his brother, doesn’t he?” Daehyun asked as if Himchan hadn’t spoken.

Yongguk seemed to understand, but the others did not. “He does, but that’s the only thing similar about them,” Yongguk assured. “He came over last night after Zelo got back from his visit, had no clue what was happenin’ but got him to calm down faster than Channie or I could. I’d argue he was more or less smilin’ by the time they went to sleep.”

“He slept over?” Daehyun asked like a disapproving mother.

“Zelo was on the couch and Jongup took the floor,” Himchan assured. “I stayed over too since it was a Sunday and all, figured we should keep as many friendly faces ‘round him as we could since things have been…”

“This shit’s too heavy for a sixteen year old.” Daehyun ran his hands over his face, then peered out the window at Zelo on his ladder, laughing at whatever Jongup had said instead of continuing whatever detail work he intended to do to the sunflower. “Seems to be laughin’ a lot though. Usually Monday-Tuesday he’s down and out, right? Jungkook? Jimin?” He forced the pair of them them to look up from their phones.

“Through Wednesday, pro’ly,” said Jungkook.

“We can only get him to hang on Thursdays or Fridays, usually. Even then, I don’t think we ever got him laughin’ like that.” Jimin drummed on his knee as he spoke. “Think I saw Youngjae make him laugh like that once, during the concert.”

“Shit— right— Youngjae— Chan, how am I doing on time?” Daehyun asked.

“You’re still good, kid. It’s only been five minutes since the last time you asked,” Himchan answered. “Not to dig up on things that piss you off, but you sure you haven’t caught somethin’? You’re real nervous for someone whose not goin’ on a date and not gettin’ ready to see someone he’s got a crush on. You’re near Jin around Minah levels of on edge right now.”

“I don’t—” Daehyun started, frustration to his tone. His shoulders slumped suddenly and he leaned back against the couch. “I don’t know. That’s all I really got to say. I don’t know what the fuck is goin’ on with me and I kind’a’ don’t want to. Was feelin’ real good ‘bout bein’ myself and knowin’ who I am and this cute ass kid shows up and up-ends all that within a week? I don’t fuckin’ know, I don’t wanna think ‘bout it, and I don’t really wanna talk about it either.”

“Got it,” Himchan agreed. “So, the beach trip then? Hanbyul’s been textin’ me pretty much every ten minutes for the past two days ‘bout it. Jimin, Jungkook, Yoongi, and Jin all already bailed but Minah is in. What do you say?”

“Any chance of my brothers comin’?” Daehyun asked. He only looked Himchan in the eye for a second before, as if the eye contact had burned him, he looked away, with his eyes landing on the colorful sunflower and the bright boys laughing in front of it.

“Nah, they wouldn’t hang out with us kids unless they were gettin’ paid to babysit or their own friends were comin’. Considerin’ I don’t wanna invite any of them, that puts both your brothers as a ‘no’ too. I think we might be able to get Zelo to go if he stays this happy. Hyeri’s definitely in if Minah is, and I’m gonna bet they’ll drag that Shiah girl they’re babysitting for Hani along with them,” Himchan replied.

“I’m in,” Daehyun agreed. He watched for a moment as Jongup passed Zelo a new white paint can after the last likely ran out, then stood.

“Dae—” Himchan requested in a wound up tone.

“Yongguk, I’m stealin’ the back room for a bit. If it gets to be time for me to go meet Youngjae, shout for me, but I don’t think it’ll take that long,” Daehyun cut Himchan off. He looked through him as if he wasn’t there to meet Yongguk’s eyes, and Yongguk nodded in return. “Don’t wait up for me.”

The side door creaked when he opened it, and Jongup looked over his shoulder for just a second before continuing to listen to whatever Zelo was saying. Daehyun stood and watched then, cracked his knuckles, and rolled his shoulders. “Wolf pup,” he called out when their conversation seemed to lull into a comfortable pause. “Come inside for a bit, I need to talk to you.” Without thinking, he puffed out his chest and widened his stance.

“Daehyun, can you stop being a paranoid ass and just leave him—” Zelo started.

“It’s good,” Jongup’s voice was soft. “I’ll be back in a few, alright?” 

Zelo’s lips thinned, and then Jongup followed Daehyun inside the stiflingly silent shop. The cold air shook them as they walked past the others, back through the lit hallways to the office that stood in the back. Each step hung heavy in the air. The thud of the door behind them was near deafening, and Daehyun tried not to hear his own heart beating as he leaned up against the office’s desk to stare Jongup down.

“I’m not spyin’ or anything,” Jongup was quick to say.

“I never thought you were,” Daehyun said with a slight rise of his shoulders. “Though I might’a’ implied it while talkin’ to Zelo so he wouldn’t get too pissed at me. Needed some sort of excuse for why I didn’t want you around, you know?”

“Then why didn’t you want me around for real?” Jongup asked.  

Daehyun looked down to the floor, kicked his shoes against the linoleum over a mark from where it had already been scuffed. Jongup shifted his weight from his right foot to his left and waited. Daehyun spent a moment staring at the black and white photo of a rose on the wall before he answered, his voice small and almost childish, “You’re Moon Jonghyun’s little brother, aren’t you?”

Jongup’s lips thinned and his hands balled up, only to loosen again before he spoke. “And you’re Jung Daemyung’s,” he mumbled in understanding. “I guess that means there’s no hope here, right? Should just say goodbye to Zelo and fuck off back to the Strip, I guess? I— No, fuck it. I’m tired of this bein’ it for me. I’m not my brother, okay? I’m nothin’ like ‘im. I haven’t even talked to him since… since he got what was comin’ to him. I get that he fucked up and all, but that’s not me. I’m my own person, not Jonghyun part two.”

The look in Daehyun’s eyes near stabbed him, not in harshness but in hurt. “I’m not my brother either. I’m not either of ‘em. I’m not gonna lie, I’ve been fuckin’ up a lot lately — ‘specially with Junhong. Can’t seem to get things right with him, and this is just me doin’ that again. Thought I was helpin’ him.”

Jongup leaned up against the door, his shoulders relaxed and his arms wrapped around his middle. “How?”

Daehyun looked away again, down at where he was toying with his fingers as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. His words came fast and mixed together. “He’s never been good at dealin’ with people, you know? Gets hurt real easy, feels real nervous ‘round strangers, and has the hardest fuckin’ time openin’ up to anyone. I remember when we were kids, I used to order for him at restaurants and stuff ‘cause he’d get too nervous about talkin’ to strangers— wouldn’t speak loud enough for anyone else to hear him. He’s a bit better now, but I know new people still scare the shit outta him. When shit started goin’ bad, it was like anythin’ could set him off, especially ‘bout his pieces. I thought, you know, not only were you some stranger walkin’ around, not only were you Moon fuckin’ Jonghyun’s little brother, but you’re also specifically into his pieces… Just sounded like a recipe for disaster to me and… I fucked up again, seems like the only thing I’ve been doin’ with him lately.”

“You were lookin’ out for him,” Jongup replied, somewhat an observation and somewhat a defence. “Seein’ how he was yesterday… I get it, you know? Like, it’s weird ‘cause I’m me and I know I wouldn’t wanna… I wouldn’t try to like… yeah, I know I’m not tryin’ to be a dick or make him uncomfortable. I was fully ready for him to tell me to fuck off when I met him and I was down for it but… I get where you were comin’ from. I would’a’ tried to keep me away too, if that makes sense.”

“Still,” Daehyun drawled, evened out and calmer than before, “It wasn’t cool of me. I shouldn’t be goin’ around actin’ like I know what’s best for ‘im. I don’t. I don’t really know shit about anythin’, much less what to do when my friend’s in a situation like this. I was bein’ an ass, and I’m sorry.”

“You were tryin’ to be a good friend,” Jongup defended. “Does that mean it’s cool if I keep hangin’ out with him?”

“Yeah… yeah, go ahead. I’ll tell everyone you’re clear but… but just be careful with him, okay? If you end up doin’ more harm than good then I got no qualms kickin’ your ass and kickin’ you out again, got it?” Daehyun drawled, cocking his head to the side.

“Got it,” Jongup agreed. His lips turned up into a small smile and he headed back out.

Unwilling to go back out and face the comparisons to his brothers once again, Daehyun pulled out the squeaky old roller chair from under the black, plastic desk, and sat down. Himchan kept the good paper in the bottom drawer and Yongguk had left some pencils scattered across the tabletop, so Daehyun did as he always did when trying to waste time: draw.

Without thinking, as if his hands moved of their own accord, a sketch of Youngjae came to be on the paper, but it was all wrong. His lips were too big, his nose too tall, his eyes too dull without their usual intrigue and shine, and his hair was too fluffy and messy. Daehyun ripped the page out and crumpled it up into a tight ball, then flattened it out again to see if it was really as bad as he had initially thought. Upon seeing it was worse, he crumpled and ripped the paper, then threw the shreds in the half full garbage bin by the corner of the desk.

He thought to try again but decided instead to draw Minah, who had been his subject so many times that he did not need a second of thought to get all of her features down properly. They had spent the majority of their childhoods together, in the back room of Captain’s convenience store while Daehyun’s mom was at work because Captain could keep half an eye on them while tending to the shop, or in Daehyun’s room with his brothers or Solji as babysitters the moment they were off school. Once Daehyun had become interested in drawing, Minah and her dolls had become the subject of the majority of his works, with Hyeri on occasion joining them once she had moved into the neighborhood.

He had just finished sketching her when Yongguk came in and settled himself up against the desk to watch. “Giving that one to her?”

Daehyun shifted slightly in his seat. Yongguk had for a long time been in his orbit, in the friend group Daehyun settled into during elementary school, but it was rare for it to be just the two of them. He reminded Daehyun of Daehee in a lot of ways, while Himchan was more like Daemyung and thus easier to handle. “Nah, to Captain,” replied Daehyun. “He wanted one to hang up in the backroom...um, went on and on ‘bout how he used to hang up all my drawings back there...”

Yongguk stayed tethered to the desk, but silent as Daehyun grabbed the next piece of paper from the stack and started sketching again. The black and white rose with the black and white tattoo artist in front, sketchy and unfinished, with rough lines around his head and eyes, only a little more sure around his chin and mouth, and with a body just a bit too thin to look proper. Yongguk was sketchy and unfinished against a slowly perfected background: the office in its exact and unchanging reality at that second and every moment that had come before. “It’s good,” praised Yongguk when he had finished; “you’ve gotten really good at realism over the years.”

“I’ve been practicing a lot… especially since I stopped writin’ outside of tags and all…” Daehyun mumbled with burning cheeks.

“You miss it, don’t you?” The words hit him in the gut.

“I can’t afford to keep gettin’ taken down to the station, Guk. Mom’s tight on cash since they reduced her hours and both my brothers are too busy to pick me up all the time. Plus, that’s kid shit, right? They both quit once they were outta high school, so did you and Chan,” said Daehyun.

He took up the pencil again, and without thinking his brothers started out on the paper, first Daehee’s eyes, then Daemyung’s smile. All else followed.

“Channie and I were talking about starting up again. Minah wants to take Shiah out for it, and we figured now that we’ve cleared off most of the debt from the parlor it wouldn’t hurt to go out again. Z said he’d go with us to keep us outta trouble, if we needed.” Yongguk peered over his shoulder as Daehyun’s brothers became clearer on the paper. Daemyung might has well have been a black and white photo rather than a drawing, but no matter how careful the lines put to the paper were, Daehee still looked off. “Why are you drawin’ him so perfect and cold-looking? You could at least draw him smilin’ like Daemyung.”

Daehyun pretended not to hear. “You think you could get your cop buddies to give us a pass if we start writin’ again? Promise I wouldn’t scribe shit into windows this time or nothin’,” drawled Daehyun, slow and careful with his words as he continued with his brothers’ faces.

“Think the precinct already up and decided to let us all go,” replied Yongguk; “this whole thing where Z isn’t getting taken down to the station because of his dad started it, but they were goin’ on about how the Wolves have been causin’ trouble everywhere. They all convinced their Captain that crime and gang wars were more important than we are.” There was a long pause between them, up until Daehyun had finished his sketch of his brothers.

Daehyun’s voice was softer when he spoke, drawling out the accent words with the heart of a nostalgic adolescent. “I miss it.”

“Me too, kiddo. Cops said we’re in the clear so long as we all keep it appropriate and pretty. I think one of them said people in the neighborhood are really likin’ the things Z puts up, and send in requests that the cops don’t buff it out. That and the Wolves should put us in the clear. What do you say?” Yongguk proposed.

“We have to deal with the Wolves first,” mumbled Daehyun. “They’d be pissed if I let the neighborhood go to shit just ‘cause I wanted to start on pieces again.”

“It’s their fight, not ours,” chided Yongguk softly. “What you told Jongup was right: you aren’t your brothers.”

Daehyun looked up, accusation in his glare. “You weren’t supposed to listen in.”

Yongguk shrugged. “My store, my rules. Didn’t want you beatin’ some poor, innocent kid up in my back room just ‘cause his brother was a monster. Also, Chan was about ten seconds from marchin’ back here to investigate himself, figured I was less disruptive.” There was a heavy pause, sitting between them like a pile of bricks. Yongguk broke through, saying, “still, you’re not your brothers. You don’t have to fight if you don’t want to. You can write graffiti again if you want to.”

Daehyun looked back at his paper, silent, and then once again drew up his pencil and set it to the sheet. His lines were confused and light, often erased until he wore the eraser down to a nub. 

“You don’t gotta be all the things people ask you to be, Dae. You don’t have to be everything all the time and you don’t have to be perfect. Why not spend some time being you?” Yongguk asked, his voice soft and slow and deep. He reminded Daehyun of a warm cup of coffee on a rainy day, comforting but he could never adjust to the taste without mounds of sugar and cream. Sometimes Daehyun wondered if Yongguk was as deep as his voice, or if there wasn’t a shallow end for him to wade into.

“I am bein’ me. What else would I be bein’?” There was a heavy silence between them. “What would I even be if I wasn’t what they expected from me?”

“Yourself,” Yongguk suggested.

“Don’t know who that guy is. Never heard of him,” joked Daehyun. Yongguk didn’t laugh. The taste of bitter black coffee seemed to scald Daehyun’s tongue — just a memory that faded with the ticking clock and his graphite stained hand. A tremendously sketchy cartoon of Youngjae lay in his wake.

He pulled out his phone and took a photo of himself winking, somewhat self-conscious to do so in front of Yongguk, who took no notice. Daehyun stared at his phone and began sketching again.

“He’s cute, isn’t he?” Yongguk asked.

“Who?” Daehyun pretended not to know — pretended not to see Yongguk’s eyes fixated on the drawing of Youngjae next to which Daehyun was attempting to draw himself, and doing so exceptionally poorly. Yongguk didn’t humor him with an answer, and eventually Daehyun, choking on the silence, agreed, “yeah, he is.”

“It’s not just about sleeping with him, is it?” Yongguk pushed.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” replied Daehyun. His sketch of himself was quickly becoming unrecognizable.

Yongguk’s feet kicked against the linoleum, and after a moment he took a pencil from the desk and put his hand over the paper. Daehyun let him take it and his phone to look at his photo. “Why not?” He prompted.

“You know that isn’t me. I don’t like people like that,” Daehyun replied softly. “You of all people—”

“What about Suwoong?” Yongguk interrupted.

“What about him?” Daehyun snapped. “I don’t like Youngjae like that, okay? Yes, he’s really cute. Yes, he looks like sunshine when he laughs. Yes, he’s hilarious and clever and overall wonderful. And yes, I’ve thought about doin’ gross stuff like holdin’ his hand and kissin’ him just to kiss him, but that doesn’t mean shit! That’s not who I am! I know me, Yongguk. Do you?”

“Do you?” Yongguk parroted. He passed the paper, a perfect replica of Daehyun’s selfie left over Daehyun’s sketchy and unrecognizable attempt at himself.

“I gotta go, Youngjae’s gonna be waitin’,” grumbled Daehyun, scrawling the words ‘meet me downstairs’ at the top of the paper where he and Youngjae had been drawn. He stood in a hurried huff, grabbing a small piece of tape from the dispenser at the corner of the desk, and rushed out of the room before either could think of a proper response.


End file.
